As if challenging the planning process which rejected its Westbury Bypass project, Wiltshire Council appears to hope to resurrect the counter-productive scheme by means of road-linked development.

Wiltshire Council reports:  'The Secretary of State's decision on the Westbury bypass has put back the implementation of this project.  However, there is an opportunity for the authority to bring the project back to the attention of Government through the Homes & Communities Agency's Single Conversation which is due to start in December.  The emphasis will be on how improved transport infrastructure in the Westbury area could help to bring forward new housing development.'   WC, 24 November 2009.

The Planning Inspector independently reached the conclusion that WC's Eastern Westbury Bypass should be refused planning permission as the scheme was out of date and the harm which it would have caused to the landscape and to other communities was not justified by its low overall benefit. This final conclusion was reached after the full Independent Public Planning Inquiry, held in Westbury between June & October 2008, where everyone had their say and all of the evidence was considered.

The Secretary of State fundamentally backed the Independent Inspector's recommendation of refusal for planning reasons, as it was a counter-productive concept.   But Wiltshire Council is ignoring this.

Here is a diagram of Wiltshire Council's suggested new housing development sites for Westbury:

Note a preponderance of development zoned for the eastern side of Westbury and how much of it matches the previously intended route of Wiltshire Council's since-refused eastern bypass project.

When the possibility of new housing along the proposed bypass line was discussed at the inquiry, Wiltshire Council basically denied that that there was any linkage or indeed that it could happen.

The emphasis of the Wiltshire Council report quoted above is all on upgrading the same A350 road, with apparently little encouragement of the under-used Trans-Wilts railway that parallels the road.

Which seems to go with the continuing neglect of full access to Westbury main-line railway station.

New homes which are dependent upon cars will produce increased road traffic to choke the roads.

Here are Wiltshire Council's retrograde intentions as reported in Local Transport Today magazine.

And more detailed observations on Wiltshire Council's Westbury development sites strategy.