A previous independent inspector made the following telling comments:

(i)  The proposed Eastern bypass route (compared with the Western routes)  includes a substantial length in a designated Special Landscape Area.

(ii)  There is no proof that problems for the water protection zone at Wellhead    (as will be caused by an Eastern route) can be satisfactorily overcome.

(iii)  A large majority of people who express a view prefer a Far Western route.

(iv)  The County Council had not shown overall costs on a like-for-like basis.

The inspector said that Wiltshire Council should reconsider the matter.

Wiltshire County Council's stance in the face of independent recommendations was being driven by a haughty group of councillors (and senior officers who are obliged to toady to them) who regarded business development as all-important.

It shows how much these Wiltshire councillors actually possess business sense that they wastefully persisted with a bad, ineffectual and damaging scheme, which they might otherwise have known was going to get turned down.