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News 2019

July - Supporters of the White Horse Alliance gathered for a garden party overlooking the quiet valley they saved from the bulldozers and the roar of fast traffic a decade ago. More details

News 2014

July - The White Horse Alliance launches petition calling for the western escarpment of Salisbury Plain, the landscape of the White Horse and the Wellhead Valley to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). We will have a stall at the popular Trowbridge Village Pump Folk Festival – right next to the proposed route. More details

May - Wiltshire Council persuades the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) to bid for a £2m study of route options for a bypass to carry the A350 round Westbury. The council hopes that the government will contribute £1m and the rest can be provided from council budgets. More details

April - Inspector writes to Wiltshire Council saying that he wants it to remove the ‘safeguarding’ of the route of the Westbury eastern bypass from its plan. See the Inspector’s 14th ‘procedural letter’ on the Wiltshire Council core strategy website

News 2013

May - Start of Examination in Public (EiP) of Wiltshire Council’s draft Core Strategy (CS) for the period to 2026. Over the following weeks our legal and ecological advisers presented evidence opposing the proposals. More details

News 2012

September - The A350 Westbury Eastern bypass is back on the map! Only three years after the government axed this pointless and destructive road, Wiltshire Council has slipped it back into its development plan. More details

January - Campaigners gathered outside Wiltshire Council offices to protest at the council's latest draft of its 'core strategy' as the council's cabinet met to approve the plan and launch another round of consultation. More details

News 2011

August - More than 20 groups tell Council: ‘Rethink your plan for county’s future’. Twenty four community organisations from across Wiltshire, including civic trusts and parish councils, have signed an open letter to Wiltshire Council objecting to its plans for the future of the county to 2026. More details

July - The WHA publish 'Wellhead Valley, Westbury - Landscape Character Assessment Report to the White Horse Alliance'. The report assesses the landscape between the town of Westbury and the western edge of Salisbury Plain, and how the planning process can protect it. More details

July - The WHA publish open letter to Wiltshire County Council opposing draft Core Strategy as 'not fit for purpose'. More details

News 2010

July - The WHA Secretary wins national award for rural campaigning. The President of CPRE, Bill Bryson, presents the Marsh Award for rural campaigning to the Secretary of the White Horse Alliance, Pat Kinnersly. More details

June - Westbury White Horse goes to Brussels: European Commission will quiz UK over ‘failure to defend Wellhead wildlife’. The European Commission is to investigate allegations that building the proposed road would have breached European wildlife law. More details

News 2009

December - Wiltshire County Council attempts to resurrect the defeated road scheme. A satirical look at the decision; whatelse?! .More details

November - The White Horse Alliance launches the 'book of the campaign'. The 26 page book with its copious photographs chronicles the determination and imagination of local residents and campaigners in defeating the road proposal and preserving the Wellhead Valley. More details

July - The Government rejects Westbury bypass plan. The Secretary of State for Communities accepts the public inspectors' recommendation that the proposed Westbury Bypass be rejected. Campaigners and local residents are jubilant. More details

May - The Government Minister who will accept or reject the Westbury bypass planning inspectors' recommendation is sent a giant postcard signed by local residents and Britain's leading environmental organisations.More details

April - The White Horse Alliance has received support from Artists' Project Earth (APE), a charity committed to promoting action against climate chaos. More details

April - Land at Fairview Farm, on the proposed bypass route, is for sale at £1m.More details

March - The opening of a photographic exhibition chronicling the road protests at Solsbury Hill, near Bath, leads to concern that similar 'road rage' could unfold at Westbury if the proposed bypass is approved. More details

March - Shaun Spiers, Campaign to Protect Rural England, puts his shoulder behind the Alliance with a contribution to the Guardian newspaper's letters page. More details

February - The Wiltshire branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England publish an article in their members magazine 'Moonraker' (Issue No. 8, February 2009) laying out a damming indictment of the road proposal.Read the three page article (PDF)

News 2008

October - The Alliance calls on Government Minister Ben Bradshaw not to 'fast-track' the road's funding as an economic stimulant. More details

October - Wiltshire County Council reveals revised figures for the mounting cost of the new road, and funding by housing development at Yarnbrook. More details

October - The public inquiry examining the proposed road lasted 25 days, and it closed on October 8. Solicitor Charlie Hopkins, representing the White Horse Alliance delivers his closing statement.

August - The White Horse Alliance is urging local businesses to take part in a critical consultation on the Station Road Railway Bridge. The bridge forms an important part of the road network; its future may hold the balance to the outcome of the bypass inquiry. More details

July - The Government repsonse to the draft regional strategy for the South-west, including Westbury in Wiltshire, does not prioritise the proposed bypass. The inquiry is adjurned on 24 July and it is to reconvene for two days in September. More details

June - The public inquiry into the proposed bypass opened on Tuesday 17 June in Westbury.

June - Saxon King Alfred, atop a horse, visited the Wellhead Valley and the route of the proposed bypass on June 8. More details

March - the pre-inquiry meeting, held on March 3, shows the extent of opposition to the proposed bypass. The Inspector recommends an inquiry starting 17 June 2008. More details

February - the White Horse Alliance persuade Government to delay the start of a planning inquiry into the controversial Westbury Eastern Bypass. Solicitors acting for the Alliance wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities complaining that the Planning Inspectorate had acted unreasonably in setting a starting date in April without consulting objectors. More details

News Archive 1997 - 2007

The opposition to a Westbury Bypass stretches back more than ten years. View the news archives:1997 - 2002; 2003 - 2005; 2006 - 2007.