The Story so far...
The issues are summarised below, or see an Alliance leaflet 'Westbury Eastern Bypass - No Way' (2007). Note: PDF reader required, see Adobe website.
What is proposed?
Wiltshire County Council want to build a series of bypasses with view to creating a strategic route from the M4 to the south coast. The current proposal is for a single carriageway road (with climbing lane where needed) approximately 5km long, running from a large new roundabout outside Westbury on the A350 near Madbrook Farm, and forming a wide loop around the town along the scarp slope of the Salisbury Plain, under the Westbury White Horse and then downhill across farmland and over the railway to re-join the A350 North of town. The road also includes the "Glenmore Link" which is a 1 km link to augment the existing entrance to the West Wilts Trading estate.
The town of Westbury (pop 10,000) suffers little congestion but does have a number of lorries through the town, many going to the industrial areas between Westbury, Melksham and Trowbridge and in Somerset.
Alternatives
An alternative route to the Western side of town, the side of the trading estate and the railway station has always been very much more popular than the Eastern route with nearly all parties, including industry. Such a route would also link with the railway station and provide better bus links across the area. It would also relieve a number of villages, as well as Westbury itself, from lorries. However a Western route has been dismissed by the County Council on the grounds that it would be more expensive to construct and therefore less likely to obtain government funding. Environmental groups also believe that a link road into the trading estate from the A36 to from the west would solve many of the area's transport problems, which relate to local HGVs. This would mean "no large bypass".
More bypasses to follow
The £35 million Westbury Eastern Bypass was, until 2003, part of a longer new proposed road, which would have additionally bypassed West Ashton and Yarnbrook. However this section of the road was shelved in 2003 in order to stage the funding of A350 improvements. The country has said that it will bid for this additional scheme as soon as the current bypass is built, and this will be followed by an additional 5-6 km bypass at Melksham. The sequence of bypasses - and the dualling of the new and now congested A350 Chippenham and Semington bypasses - are all part of Wiltshire County Council's "Western Wiltshire Sustainable Transport Strategy".
Bypassing the public
The Westbury Eastern Bypass has been a difficult road to push forward because of its extreme unpopularity, but the county has been resolute and spent £2-3 million of local funds to date on consultancy to achieve its aim. Barriers such as Westbury Town Council, the Local District Plan Inspector's recommendation against the road (2003), a large demonstration against the road, hundreds of objections at the first and subsequent planning application and the reluctance of south west regional assembly to finance the road, have not dampened the local authority's efforts. Indeed regionally, Wiltshire County Council threatened to withdraw from the Regional Finding process unless its bypass was artificially elevated from low priority (with no funding) to a scheme potentially to be funded. The threat successfully engineered possible regional finance but has run into trouble because it is not backed up by the Regional Spatial Strategy.
Adverse impacts
COST - now estimated at £35M.
WILDLIFE - major impact. Effects on 13 species of bat, dormice, water voles, barn owls, otters, great crested newt, a number of BTO red listed birds - road kill, habitat severance, disturbance.
HEDGEROWS - major impact. Destruction of 35 hedgerows. Hedgerows are key habitats, provide food, hibernation & breeding sites and navigation routes for small birds and mammals, and support a wide variety of invertebrates.
LANDSCAPE - major impact, can't be mitigated. Prized area used by local people and others from further afield would be ruined by noise. The road would be intrusive and visible for some miles as it ran along the scarp slope of the Salisbury Plain and past the Westbury White Horse.
TRAFFIC INDUCTION Traffic induction along the A350 and A36; sustainable growth of West Wiltshire on basis of new "strategic road" between M4 and South Coast Ports.