News Archive 1997 - 2002

1997 - public opinion against Eastern bypass for Westbury. 10,000 questionnaires were sent out by Wiltshire County Council(WCC) asking for views regarding a Westbury bypass. Less than 13% were returned with a 'YES Westbury needs a bypass'. Of the 594 returns, 463 did not believe than an Eastern bypass offered a satisfactory solution.

1998 - public opinion shows 3/4 want route to West instead. Wiltshire County Council consultants put forward a number of routes for a bypass around the small town of Westbury, to the west of town. A single alternative to the East was also included, but this is unpopular and only attracts a quarter of the votes. Local politics and the search for the cheapest route around the town regardless of environmental or landscape constraints win the day: an Eastern route is chosen even though nearly all Parish Councils and the Wessex Chambers of Commerce favour a Western one.

May 1999- public opinion shows unpopularity of Eastern bypass. Westbury Parish Poll showed the unpopularity of an Eastern bypass again. The question Do you want an Eastern Bypass? Produced the results: Yes:271 votes; No: 1,357 votes. To the question Do you want a Western Bypass? the results were Yes 1,409; No: 223.

Parkmans consultants, advising the County, and TRL consultants advising the District, both agreed that there was not sufficient traffic in Westbury to justify a bypass of the town. Both identified Yarnbrook as having a higher priority. Parkmans recommended further investigation of a bypass to the west.

2001 - public opinion once again shows unpopularity of Eastern Bypass. A poll of Westbury and surrounding villages asked the question: "Should the County Council put in a bid for government funding for the Eastern Westbury Bypass?" 535 said "no" and only 164 said "yes". The County ignored the results and put in a bid anyway. The results of the questionnaire are left out of the documentation submitted to GOSW, since these would have had a negative effect.

Embarassment of road going near White Horse. The Bristol Bath to South Coast Study takes place. This study is of long distance traffic goinsg to the South Coast Ports. The minutes of the meeting on 22/01/02 WCC requested that Item 5 of the minutes be altered to indicate that the preferred route for the A350 was a Westbury By-pass to the eastern side, and not to make reference to the White Horse.

View News Archive 2003 - 2005