A WESTBURY bypass could be back on the agenda – according to Westbury MP Andrew Murrison and Bridget Wayman, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, transport and waste.
They were speaking last week at a meeting to discuss the local response to Bath’s proposal for a chargeable clean air zone in the city.
A possible bypass around Westbury has been on the agenda for over 20 years, with possible routes argued over, ending in stalemate for the town. Now, local people say the bypass is needed more than ever and those attending the meeting accused Wiltshire Council of ‘forgetting about Westbury’ and ‘putting it at the bottom of the list.’
The meeting, held on Friday 16th November, discussed Bath & North East Somerset’s (BANES) proposed plan to implement a chargeable clean air zone (CAZ) through the centre of the city by 2020.
Concerns raised included traffic being diverted away from Bath and onto the A36 and A350 through Westbury with MP Andrew Murrison claiming this will be a great way to campaign for a Westbury bypass.
The CAZ will see a daily charge for vehicles of £9 for cars and £100 for HGVs, from the end of 2020, for driving through the centre of Bath, to help meet their target from the Government to reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide by 2021.
MP Andrew Murrison said, “I am gravely disappointed that they (BANES) haven’t taken the views from the wider area into account. They must surely know that this will transit more vehicles south/north, it has to go somewhere, you don’t need the brain of a rocket scientist to know that it will go onto the A350. I would invite BANES to perhaps join with Wiltshire Council in trying to address our joint issue around air quality in parts of this general area. A cooperative approach, rather than this approach, will be much more helpful.
“There is intense pressure on the A350 running through Westbury at the moment with developments and incinerator plants. If we obtain all that lot together, the prospect of the air quality in the middle of our town will get significantly worse, rather than better, and it would be an immense tragedy.”
The meeting was also attended by mayor, Ian Cunningham, and Bridget Wayman and Allan Creedy from Wiltshire Council’s highways and transport department. Neighbouring town and parish councils were also invited, as well as the public. Despite being invited, BANES did not attend.
Allan Creedy from Wiltshire Council Highways Department said Wiltshire Council is yet to finalise its comments, but do share concerns.
But many at the meeting were unimpressed, saying that Westbury and its air quality problems have been forgotten by Wiltshire Council.
Town councillor Mike Kettlety said, “Enough is enough – Westbury cannot afford any more vehicles going through it.”
And he said any increase following the introduction of the Bath charges would not be acceptable.
“It has major problems with heavy duty vehicles coming through the area. As small as the number may seem, it is just one too many.
“We are not prepared to accept this situation, we need to work together to tell, not only BANES, but Wiltshire Council, that we have a problem and for them to recognise this problem and they should start thinking about doing something about it!”
Bridget Wayman, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, transport and waste responded, “We are looking at the moment at an improved North/South route in conjuction with Bournemouth and Poole and Dorset County Council, from the south coast to the M4.
“We are hoping to achieve funding to make improvements to the road network, and I hope it will include a Westbury bypass so we can take the traffic from the South to the North.
“Any major road improvement will not happen overnight, it will take years. I would love to build a Westbury bypass tomorrow, but we can’t do that.”
MP Andrew Murrison continued, “The solution to this is a bypass, I cannot see another way of doing this. There is a pot of money now for this sort of project and this CAZ comes at a reasonable time, as we can say let’s try and deal with this together and particular now, as this money could be levered in our direction. We can tell the government, the way to deal with Bath’s problem and the way to deal with Westbury’s problem is to build a bypass.”
