Topic: PLEASE SOMEONE HELP

[DORIAN]

Every ROUTE FROM THE A303 is flagged by blue instruction boards directing traffic over 18 ton through westbury. Has anyone got any muscle to say that both health and noise and homes vibrating are ruining those poor sods that live on the westbury/warminster road.
Yes shizzy, miserable sod i maybe but this is ridiculous, i had to wait 10 minutes to get from Madbrook farm to Aldi due to congestion today. forget the town, if pollution is a political issue WESTBURY SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN AS A HEALTH HAZARD

[Shizzy]

New signs have been going up over the last week. It's due to BANES banning lorries over a bridge (I think in Bath). Westbury is desperately in need of a bypass.

[baldy]

It is explained in the article in the current WHN: http://www.whitehorsenews.co.uk/blog/2020/01/28/keep-your-traffic-bath/

[Pugwash]

The WHN article partly explains the situation, but avoids the point that we have been sold down the river by Wilts Council yet again
I picked up a copy of the Bath Echo in the RUH William Budd waiting area a few weeks ago, and it had an item about this bridge closure. These statements  jumped out at me  -
" Signed diversion routes, using designated roads suitable for large vehicles will be in place for through traffic ...."  and "  We have a very extensively signed diversion route for heavy vehicles which has been drawn up with our neighbouring authorities... "  my bold.

So Wiltshire Council would appear to have colluded in the increase in traffic through the town.

This whole issue would have been avoided if Bath Council had not objected to the Beckford Spur and the A36/A46 link when the Batheaston Bypass was built.

[baldy]

As the highways authority for Wiltshire (except the Swindon area), Wiltshire Council highways officers have obligations to ensure that traffic is properly signposted, including traffic diverted through the authority area.

Different teams exist to do different work. I imagine that the maintenance and management team would have dealt with signs. The strategic planning side of things at director level would be dealing with checking that what BANES is doing is legal and they would be using contacts at Government level to talk about where this is all going in the future.... 

As far as I am aware, our MP - Dr Andrew Murrison MP - is on the case and pressing for everyone to work together to get on with making funding available for a Westbury A350 bypass.

[Pugwash]

That's all very well, but even if funding was made available straight away, it would not solve the present issue of excessive traffic on unsuitable roads.
This is the map of the diverison routes published in the Bath Echo.  Westbury does not even appear as an un-named  grey blob as do Calne , Keynsham and  Bradford on Avon, even though it is the only town which the diverted traffic passes through with no bypass. 

[baldy]

And?

[Pugwash]

I was always taught never to start a sentence with And  or But, still never mind.
The point is that yet again Westbury is not considered in the greater scheme of things.

In answer to the original posters plea for help, I think the Westbury community must first help itself and draw some attention to the issue.
Perhaps a Day of Action, using our four Pelican crossings ( by Lidl, West End, Haynes Road, Warminster Road) and the Zebra crossing on Warminster Road.  A conga line of concerned residents between them all should back traffic up to Yarnbrook and the Warminster services, and with the media involved, should get national attention. 
In reality, apathy will rule as always.

[baldy]

Erm ...

The context here, which I find hard to forget and which I am amazed that anyone could forget, is that about 17 years ago, the then county council, Wiltshire County Council, started a Westbury Bypass project which took several years to look at all routes to find the most feasible route. The council calculated the costs and benefits (though this was found to be deeply flawed later) and also lined up the funding via the South West Regional Assembly, subject to planning.

All sorts of NIMBYs and national anti-new roads objectors then made all sorts of dubious claims. The design was revised and in 2007 a revised scheme for the shortest possible route around the town was submitted for planning permission. This got called in by the Labour Secretary of State for Transport and eventually in 2010 he refused the planning permission.

All sorts of morons claimed that the better route was the one which went the longest route around the town and which would cost more to build and would actually reduce traffic through the town the least.

The reason why Westbury does not have a bypass is because all sorts of morons thought it would be better if the proposed bypass, which was fully funded and "shovel-ready", was refused.

Wiltshire Council will be restarting that project within a few years as soon as the preliminary finance to start the project can be lined up. They will be looking carefully at the costs and benefits in a changing climate where fuel efficiency and shorter journey times are becoming more important, which means shorter routes are better ... which means that it is highly likely that the same route as last time will be chosen.

Blame the morons for the missing bypass!!!!!!!!!!


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BTW - my first English teachers also said don't start a sentence with "And".

Later, around the time I was studying for my MSc degree, I read articles about good English and realised that often it works very well indeed to break up sentences and start some with "And" and "But" not least because it works very well to break up contrasting thoughts into separate points next to each other. I would not do it in a formal report where some anally-retentive critic might cause trouble ...


It is more a matter of taste than grammar. Personally, I think  spelling and correct punctuation is more important, such as not using apostrophes in the wrong place - eg. 90s NOT 90's.

[DORIAN]

Our Organisation, Westbury Bypass Now!! organised about a dozen well attended marches through the town, armed with flags and whistles. yes the traffic was snarled up for miles due to the fact that we amassed around 50 people on a saturday morning walking slowly form the warminster road to the scouts hall... with police in attendance. the Morons still trafficked the idea that any road anywhere was a bad thing, and now we live in a polluted town, westbury

[baldy]

The need for a Westbury A350 Bypass is already well known and the route to obtaining funding is already identified. I wrote about it in this forum only a few months ago.

There is no need for any campaign. Both Wiltshire Council and Westbury Town Council are on the case. It is simply a matter of waiting for government money to fall into place after the proposed new Melksham bypass is underway.

As I said before, the first bit of funding should occur within about 2 - 3 years which will allow the analysis and consultation stage to start by looking at all possible routes to identify the feasible options.


See here:  https://www.westburytownforums.co.uk/index.php/topic,5038.0.html

[Pugwash]

I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet here, Russell.
 I well remember the earlier  bypass fiasco, and even the previous incarnation  around 1978/79 of  what was then called the West Wilts Bypass, from Standerwick to Yarnbrook, as part of an integrated transport plan for the routes from the South Coast to the M4.  Sadly, only piecemeal elements of that ever happened.
 I will refrain from name-calling, but was ironic that one of the main objectors to the last scheme came from a town which already had already been bypassed.
It is just a shame that we have to wait for funding to carry out studies and consultation which as you state above, will most likely identify the  route which was proposed before.

[Shizzy]

but was ironic that one of the main objectors to the last scheme came from a town which already had already been bypassed.

Not only that he lived in a road that benefited greatly from the by-pass.

The West Wilts by-pass you described is probably the best (but not cheapest) option.