We still have a small backlog of debt to clear.   Helping to stop the dud road-building and development scheme has cost us plenty in freely given time and in contributions from our own money.   Wrong-headed councillors, officers who might have known better and useless statutory bodies have been publicly paid all of the time.

Our barbeque party on Saturday 8 August at Beggars Knoll, Westbury, was a well-deserved stupendous success, in blissful sunshine, despite wet days on either side, with a big crowd enjoying life late into the warm starry night.

As well as fund-raising, we were celebrating the saving of much-loved Wellhead Valley by the planning inspector.

On 19 June '09, excusing our French, we said Boules to the Bypass and threw them on that long summer evening. And, regardless of a rainy day, our 16 May '09 coffee morning and sales of plants etc brought in lots more funds. Our Easter garden party at Beggars Knoll on 13 April was a previous fund-raising success in fine spring weather.

King Alfred and Saxon warriors, prepared to defend the White Horse Scarp from an Eastern Bypass

Our Eastern Feast on 1 February and Music Event at Heywood House on 1 March 2008 were sell-out successes.
Our sales of bargains etc in Newtown on 31 May and at Madbrook Farm on 13 July were both highly successful.
Our Chinese Garden event at Beggars Knoll, Westbury, on 8 June, was well attended and raised lots more funds. It was preceded by the return of King Alfred to the area of the Battle of Ethendun, now the area of a bypass route. A young virtuoso piano recital at the Athenaeum in Warminster on 29 August was brilliant and had a good house.
Our walk around the site of the Battle of Ethendun in the summer weather on 28 September was a wonderful day.

WBA events are good value and enjoyable in themselves - where the bypass campaign is usually forgotten about.

We've raised an astounding c.£60k since the Autumn of 2007 - from local people and events in the Westbury area.

Our overall group the White Horse Alliance confronted the eastern route Westbury Bypass scheme at the Inquiry. We put up a host of independent experts on landscape, economic impact, traffic, noise, environmental impact, wildlife mitigation effectiveness etc and will be delighted to receive contributions towards our expenses.

Please send cheques to Westbury Bypass Alliance, 35 Bratton Road, Westbury, BA13 3EP.

We all need a better solution.    Please keep helping to save this lovely view.

Wiltshire (County) Council has spent <£8M in recent years on promoting roads which have not been approved, funded or built.

Most Westbury people are particularly against the Eastern Bypass scheme (on which WCC has wasted around £5M of Wiltshire council tax revenue) which went badly for WCC at the Inquiry.   We are still fund-raising to pay for our representation, at a fraction of the money that WCC spent.    There was full opportunity at the Inquiry for ordinary local residents to voice their own opinions to the Inspectors.   There were twice as many objectors as supporters.

Until halted by the Planning Inspector, Wiltshire Council would have wasted more of our cash on its eastern bypass scheme. Conservative-run Wiltshire County Council had been hoarding up to £12M in an Icelandic-owned bank.   Wiltshire Council is hoping to recover about £10M of this.   It appears that the other <£2M will be lost.   We hoped that Wiltshire Council would not waste yet more of our tax contribution on a costly challenge (through the high court) against the inspector's independent and irrefutable ruling on Wiltshire Council's dud eastern bypass scheme, an action which was bound to end in further failure.

Well, in the event, Wiltshire Council has in fact wasted even more council tax money on futile legal consultation, before discreetly abandoning its face-saving big talk of an appeal against the independent inspector's conclusion.