The Wiltshire Times of 18 May 2007 ran: 'The majority of responses against the Westbury bypass project were from people living all over the UK and as even far afield as South Korea...', as if this was factual news.

This newspaper was distributed on 17 May, the same day (after its committee meeting) that WCC released its respondent lists.   We were told by WCC that we were the only ones to ask for all of the responses.   We obtained complete copies of all of the letters on 22 May '07.

It was impossible for the lists and all the letters to have been independently analysed by 17 May.

The misleading 'news' was obviously a briefing by Wiltshire County Council, probably involving a third party.

Although objections are indeed widespread, proper analysis shows that about three-quarters of all objectors are actually Wiltshire residents (and most of these Wilts objectors live in the Westbury area).