LATEST NEWS UPDATE

15^th July, 2008

Last night (14^th July) was the opportunity for members of the public to have their say. 23 people were on the list to speak, 8 supporters and 15 objectors. The supporters spoke well, with passion about their personal experiences in and around the town. This ranged from an elderly lady with a disabled husband who has difficulty getting into the town centre, to a gentleman who recorded 957 vehicles passing by his house between 6:30am and 7:30am that morning. Another spoke of numerous accidents that have happened outside his house on Warminster Road, one involving his daughter.

The objectors also spoke well but appeared too fragmented. A few of them were from Yarnbrook, West Ashton and Southwick, their statements smacked of "if we're not getting a bypass, Westbury shouldn't either"! Other objectors spoke about the railway service (which is in dire need of extra funding but not, in my opinion, at the expense of the bypass), the unfairness of gagging town councillors, and a bypass in Okehampton in Devon!

One thing that did strike me was that a lot of the people (especially those from the northern villages) who spoke wanted a western bypass and were supporting the White Horse Alliance. But it is the WHA's stance that there should be NO bypass, not even a western route. Jenny Ragget of the WHA summed it up when she was cross examined during the inquiry, asked if she was promoting a western route she said "Definately NOT, in fact I would object to it!"

Last week, the White Horse Alliance made a request for more information, this request needs to go to the Secretary of State. In order for this to be properly considered and the information gathered, there will be a break in the inquiry. The closing submissions will now not be heard until early September.

4^th July, 2008

The White Horse Alliance's first Witness appears today.

2^nd July, 2008

The County Council have finished presenting their evidence and now it is the turn of Westbury Town Council,Westbury Bypass NOW!, UPRAWW and the West Wiltshire Economic Partnership/Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce.

21^st June, 2008

The opening statements and updates for the first 2 days are now on the inquiry website...

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/westbury-bypass-public-inquiry.htm

The updates include a list of all documents received on that day.

19^th June, 2008

The Inquiry opened bang on 10am on Tuesday 17^th June. First off, the inspectors took about 45 minutes with their opening statements. This was then followed by the opening statements from Wiltshire County Council, Westbury Bypass NOW!, UPRAWW, White Horse Alliance and finally the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

30^th May, 2008

Having a life to lead, a company to run, and a young family to attend to, there has been little spare time to keep this website as up to date as I would have liked. So for that, I apologise.

I know how tedious and frustrating it can be digging through endless linked pages trying to find what's been updated, so any new update will appear here, on the front page.

So what has been going on over the last 12 months since May last year?

Following the regulatory committee meeting on 16^th May, 2007 at Wiltshire County Council, where the Councillors unanimously voted in favour of the bypass, there have been a number of developments...

In July of 2007 the Secretary of State made the decision to "Call-in" the application. This meant that a full planning inquiry would be organised to scrutinise the application. Little else happened in 2007, except for the expected arrival of the Final Report from the South West Regions Examination in Public of their Draft Regional Spatial Strategy.

In early January 2008 the above report arrived. At 517 pages it takes a long time to read. Despite having its own session at the examination in public, very little mention of the Westbury bypass is made in the report. However, anti-bypass campaigners seem to think that the bypass has been omitted from a "list of 80 transport schemes that the inspectors wish to see progressed". This list is non-existent!

Later in January, a date for the public inquiry leaked out of the planning inspectorate, it was, apparently, due to start on April 29^th 2008. This date was challenged by the White Horse Alliance who threatened a judicial review. Despite having known about the public inquiry since July 2007, they claimed that their witnesses wouldn't be ready! The planning Inspectorate's own guidelines state that an inquiry should be held within 14 - 22 weeks of the date on which the decision to have an inquiry was made.

The first pre-inquiry meeting was held at WCC chambers in Trowbridge on 3^rd March, 2008. On this date Westbury Bypass NOW! received confirmation that we had been granted Rule 6 status. This basically means that we have the right to cross examine the White Horse Alliance's witnesses. At this meeting a new date was agreed with all of the parties and recommended to the two Secretaries of State. The new date was set at 17^th June, 2008. This works out at 48 weeks, more than twice as long as the upper limit of the Planning Inspectorate's guidelines. There was also an opportunity for alternatives to be put forward for consideration. The White Horse Alliance failed to put forward anything. So there you have it folks, straight from the horse's mouth, it's either the eastern bypass or NOTHING!

A second pre-inquiry meeting was held at The Laverton in Westbury on 19^th May. This meeting tied up any loose ends - confirmation of witnesses, document library, etc.

Exchange of proofs of evidence was due to take place on 20^th May; Wiltshire County Coucil, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Westbury Bypass NOW!, and UPRAWW all conformed to the deadline and exchanged at the arranged time and place. However, the White Horse Alliance failed to show up stating that a technical problem was holding them up. Westbury Bypass NOW! didn't receive their evidences until 22^nd May, when it did arrive it was, to be honest, in a mess!

Westbury Bypass NOW!, along with other supporters of the scheme, will be presenting evidence to the inquiry on 2^nd July.

An inquiry website has been set up by the Programme Officer, Helen Wilson. The Inquiry web-site has details of the inquiry sitting times, electronic copies of the proofs of evidence, minutes of the 2 pre-inquiry meetings, and the agenda for the inquiry itself. You can access it by going to...

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/transport/westbury-bypass-public-inquiry.htm

I will endeavour to keep this website as up to date as possible throughout the inquiry.