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