Melksham bypass is moving ahead – It’s the right choice to improve ‘economic and physical health’ of the county, says council leader

WILTSHIRE Council has agreed to move forward with its plans for a Melksham A350 bypass, dismissing calls for it to focus more on improving public transport in a bid to fight climate change. 

Speaking at last week’s Wiltshire Council cabinet meeting, a representative for the Wiltshire Climate Alliance urged the council to rethink its Melksham bypass plans and be more ambitious with improving public transport. “Then see if there is still a case for a bypass,” said the Wiltshire Climate Alliance representative. 

But leader of Wiltshire Council, cllr Richard Clewer, described calls for the council to reduce the number of vehicles on the road by improving public transport as “a very strategically short-sighted approach”. 

The councillor explained that because of the increase in sales of electric vehicles, and the future end to sales of petrol and diesel cars, transport will “decarbonise itself over a comparatively short timescale”.  

He also highlighted that as a rural area, the ability to move around the county via public transport is ‘limited’ and that Wiltshire residents are reliant on cars to travel.  

“So I think the argument that we shouldn’t encourage car use just doesn’t work in Wiltshire,” said cllr Clewer. “To try and impose the ideology on the people of Wiltshire that you must not use cars, well, they’re not going to wear it, they’re not going to accept it, it’s going to cause more harm than benefit, and it won’t get us any further forward.” 

He went on to say that as more houses are built in Wiltshire, the number of cars in the county will only increase, and possibly congestion – which gives weight to the argument that bypasses are important for the ‘economic and physical health’ of the county 

Giving his support to the Melksham bypass plans, cllr Clewer said, that the proposal “will make life better for residents of Melksham, make it easier to walk, reduce pollution, and make things better for economy in Melksham. 

“We are not declaring war on cars, cars are decarbonising and we want to assist that process, but we also want to make sure that residents of Wiltshire can get around Wiltshire and live their lives and have a good functioning life.” 

His comments were echoed by cllr Jon Hubbard, speaking in his role as a Wiltshire councillor, who said “we will never square the circle of how people in rural communities travel”, adding that he did not think that the Melksham A350 bypass will be a “massive pollution risk” as the cars that will be using it “will soon not be burning fossil fuels.” 

Cllr Hubbard added that a bypass will also help unlock potential to improve the town centre. He explained that as the road through the town centre is only one of two primary routes through Melksham over the River Avon – the other being the A350 Western Way – the scope for work in the town centre and the possibility of closing the road for pedestrian-only events is limited, as it is considered an ‘A’ road. 

The comments by the councillors were made at last week’s Wiltshire Council cabinet meeting when it was agreed to proceed with the proposal for the A350 Melksham bypass.  

Reiterating the council’s commitment to the bypass, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for transport, cllr Dr Mark McClelland said, “This is not some vanity project, we’re not into building roads for the sake of it and we’re not pursuing this out of some mistaken sunk cost fallacy where we’ve invested too much and we’re too far along and too embarrassed to turn back. 

“We’re investing in this and pushing this as we believe it is a critically important scheme for Wiltshire. It removes congestion from Melksham, improves air quality for the residents of Melksham, it cuts journey times on our most important north-south strategic A350 route, and perhaps most importantly it provides us with significant economic benefit.”

The outline business case for the route known as ‘10c’ – a route to the east of Melksham, around Bowerhill – will soon be submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) for consideration. 

Any further progress of the bypass project will rest on the feedback from the DfT and the outcome of the National Highways’ north-south connectivity study, which will assess the road links between the M4 and south coast, a study that cllr Dr McClelland, described as “the elephant in the room”. 

Asked by Melksham News what his comment meant, and what impact the National Highways’ study could have on the Melksham bypass plans, cllr Dr McClelland, said, “The A350 is a key route to the south coast from the M4 through to the Dorset coast, and as such, the study may have implications for the proposed Melksham bypass. We don’t yet know what the outcome will be, or any implications for this scheme, but it may strengthen the case for a Melksham bypass. We expect the results of the study to be published in summer 2022.” 

If the scheme is approved to move forward, it is anticipated that a third consultation on the route will happen later in 2022, looking at specific points of detail – such as public rights of way and water courses – and potential route variations that were suggested by local communities in the recent consultation. 

Wiltshire Council’s head of service, highway major projects, Peter Binley, said that he felt the bypass plan “has a good business case” for the DfT to provide funding, adding that the plan is part of a “much bigger picture” for the A350 and is not just about “traffic relief for Beanacre”. 

Reponses to the consultation held between June and August this year about the 10c route were also discussed at last week’s cabinet meeting. 

Early in the meeting it was highlighted by the Wiltshire Climate Alliance that “more people oppose any scheme than support it”. The group’s representative said that the results of the consultation show that 52 per cent of those that took part in the consultation did not feel the need for the proposed bypass and that 67 per cent said the emerging route was not suitable. 

However, cllr Dr McClelland – who described the proposed bypass as a “critically important scheme for Wiltshire” – said that the consultation was not an opinion poll or a referendum on the proposed bypass; and therefore, not a fair representation of the opinion of the community. 

But the councillor did acknowledge that consultation shows that there is ‘significant opposition’ to the scheme, focussing on four main themes. 

He listed the four main themes as the ‘immediate environmental impact’ of the project; the ‘wider concerns of climate change’; loss of access to the countryside; and concerns about the ‘significant cost’ of the project, now estimated to be nearing £235million in total. 

Addressing the concerns about the ‘immediate environmental impact’ of the project, cllr Dr McClelland said, “The reason why we went with the 10c route over the longer 10d route and over all the options on the west side of Melksham, is that 10c was consider the most environmentally benign of all those routes – it was able to deliver the objectives such as reduce journey times and have the lightest footprint from an environmental perspective.” 

About the ‘wider concerns of climate change’, he said, “There’s nothing progressive on carbon emissions by being stuck in traffic,” before explaining that further detailed work will be done to look at the scheme’s impact on carbon emissions. 

Regarding the worry about the loss of access to the countryside caused by the bypass route, cllr Dr McClelland explained that they will be looking at ways to mitigate the impact of the scheme and retain access. 

And about the concerns about the ‘significant cost’ of the project, cllr Dr McClelland said the “benefits outweigh the cost of the scheme”. He explained that the current ‘benefit cost ratio’ indicated that for every £1 spent on the project, there will be £1.50 to £2 returned in economic benefit. “Which gives confidence in the project,” said cllr Dr McClelland. 

To read the Wiltshire Council cabinet papers, people should go to: https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=13773; or to find out more about the scheme, people should see: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/highways-a350-melksham-bypass.