Estimated construction cost more than doubled during recent years.

From £14.4M reported for the Eastern Bypass in 2004, to £38M by 2010.

The spiralling cost was because the eastern route is fundamentally unsuitable.

And the eastern bypass design concept has proved to be basically inadequate.

Several attempts over the years to attract funding for a road around Westbury have all been without any success.   Around £5M of Wiltshire council tax money has now gone on designing and promoting Wiltshire Council's eastern bypass.

The 1996-based construction estimate presented to the Wiltshire councillors, when they voted for the eastern Westbury bypass scheme, was just £9.4M.

In 2004, W(C)C told the BBSCS consultants that the cost would be £14.4M.

The cost reported in 2004 was possibly in line with the DTI indices for publicly funded road schemes.   But they are often not good value.   The Chief Executive of the Highways Agency had recently acknowledged that the long-held opinion that congestion can be solved by road building has been shown to be wrong.

For the period from 1996 to 2010, overall UK inflation had been about 33%.

Compare £9.4M in 1996 with £38M by 2010, once W(C)C's theoretical start.

Whilst general UK inflation meant an increase in pounds of just a third more, the cost of W(C)C's Eastern Bypass scheme had gone up by over four times.

By coincidence, councillors were told of a benefits value for an eastern bypass of about three times the 1996 construction cost.   The Eastern Bypass scheme has no economic justification.   And further cost increases were to emerge.

Planning permission was refused.   Our Council wasted £5M on its project.