B&NES seeking to export HGV problem

Cllr Joanna Wright rightly said in this paper, “There’s no option to build more roads. There’s simply no space.”

But B&NES Council belongs to the Western Gateway Sub-national Transport Body, a formal strategic transport planning partnership.

Its Draft Strategic Transport Plan 2020-2025, says members are “committed to… providing a single voice to Government on strategic transport investment and prioritisation.”

So it turns out B&NES is signing up to the “Missing Link Strategic Corridor” of new roads along the Wiltshire and Dorset A350/rail corridor, such as bypassing the oldish Melksham Bypass just nine miles from Bath, another try at a Westbury Bypass, and damaging “upgrades” in Dorset.

These “support future [traffic] growth”, not even pretending to support “the decarbonisation of the network”.

Convenient for Bath to export its local HGV problem to 40 miles of Wiltshire roads, passing through or by five working towns, and another 25 miles in Dorset!

Never mind that these roads will bring on greenfield development and car-dependent new housing. Never mind that there are existing trunk roads between the M4 and the South coast.

Oh, wait! B&NES can’t just say, “That’s crazy Aunty Wiltshire, she won’t change her ways.”

B&NES’ support flies in the face of the global climate emergency and cancels out the Western Gateway area plan’s good stuff.

There are two kinds of transport strategy: a carbon reduction one, investing in public transport and Active Travel, and an unsustainable roads-based one that belongs in 20th century history books. You can’t promote both and sleep righteously at night.

To understand the Gateway’s strategy, you need only look at the spending priorities - every £1m on roads is £1m less for sustainable transport investment.

Dear Joanna, will you join with other sane WGSTB Councils such as Bristol, and say to Wiltshire Council, “Enough?!”

Unless you do, Wiltshire won’t even bother to look at a better way forward. Your STB votes on its collective Draft Strategy in December.

You need to answer to Wiltshire citizens and the planet as well as your own electorate.

The West Country will be watching you.

Andrew Nicolson West Wiltshire