“The decision has restored what little faith I have in the planning process!”

We won! An Inbox filled to the brim told the tale. Rumours had been flying that the scheme would be approved by Government before the summer recess. But following a planning inquiry last year, it was finally announced that the Inspector had agreed with campaigners – the road scheme would damage the landscape, the traffic in Westbury was no worse than many towns, the A350 was not a strategic route, the scheme would not encourage modal shift from cars or sustainable economic development. To read the decision letter was like playing back the arguments we had been making all along.

The emails from elated campaigners, some of whom had been devoting most of their waking hours to the battle against the road scheme for years, shows the relief, the surprise, the joy which is felt:

“The decision has restored what little faith I have in the planning process!”

“Anyway, it’s just extraordinary ….so much work by so many, the equivalent of a team of 3 full-time workers at least for many years….not to mention the hours and hours that the people of Westbury must have spent writing letters, fund-raising, etc, the hours and hours of meetings etc”

“It seems that this is, as we said, a dud road on an unimportant route that would wreck the landscape and tranquility of the Wellhead Valley….. Thank you all so much for all your work and support and hard-won cash, the faith and the fundraising and the late nights and midnight compositions, the boring meetings, the troughs of despair..”

Battles against road schemes are unequal struggles – Wiltshire County Council (now Wiltshire Council) had been promoting Westbury Bypass in the portfolio of road schemes which forms the backbone of their transport policy for years. Questions to Council earlier this year revealed that £4.411 million of taxpayers’ money had been spent on the scheme to March 2009. £750,000 was spent by the Council on the Public Inquiry alone, to cover legal fees and expert witnesses. The White Horse Alliance, the umbrella group of those opposed to the road, had a fraction of the money available to the council, and all the legal fees and expert witnesses for the Inquiry, as well as any campaign costs, had to be paid for from supporters’ donations. Fund raising to cover the deficit still continues.

But at the end, for this campaign, it’s all been worth it. The Inspector’s reasoning will make sombre reading not just for Wiltshire but for other Local Authorities who still seem wedded to a road expansion programme from the last century. The ground rules are changing, sustainable development and environmental considerations can win the day. Let us hope that the Westbury decision will mark a real turning point in transport policy not just in Wiltshire but across the country.

Margaret Willmot, Salisbury Campaign for Better Transport and Committee Member SWA21