Wiltshire (County) Council is exclusively promoting its Eastern Bypass project, which would have been counterproductive and
spoilt the hills above Westbury.
Statements issued by Wiltshire Council, even if they are quite misleading, are reiterated verbatim by local newspapers, at
times presented as if factual news, without quoting the source, whereas statements by objectors to a roads-biased transport
policy are invariably presented as quotes and are usually 'balanced' with an uncritically-repeated contrary statement
obtained from the Council.
The Conservatives at County Hall work with Conservative leaning local media.
When planning permission for its Eastern Bypass was decided against, Wiltshire Council's PR team put it out that it was
appealing it. The Wiltshire Times ran this as a main story and compliantly said that the appeal was to be against
the decision of Lord Adonis. The wrong minister, but the name suited a fiction that it was political interference.
The fundamental fact that planning permission had been ruled against by independent expert planning inspectors was left out.
It is similarly now conveniently forgotten that the inspectors came to a decision in Westbury itself, spending months going
through every aspect of the scheme and statistics and carefully taking into account everything said by everyone.
WC never appealed the decision. That story was put out to divert attention.
I am presenting information and commentary on ways forward for Westbury, with facts which you will not find within Wiltshire
Council's various publicity.
I have lived in this part of the West of England for over forty years: Bristol, Salisbury, Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge
and Warminster. I think that we all have a right to offer a genuine informed opinion about the siting of
new roads.
Our public money should not be wasted, our overall environment not worsened.
Like most of us I own a car, but I also believe in integrated transport systems. I walk our Salisbury Plain Escarpment
in West Wiltshire. I want to preserve it.
I have never owned property on any of the routes through or around Westbury, or have any financial interest in the Westbury area,
or any family that do. I am not fronting the vested interests of others. I am not in any sort of
business, nor involved in any development. I have never bought a home with prospects of the traffic outside it
being reduced for my benefit at the expense of others.
I set up this website because I think that it would be a sacrilege to put a road under the Escarpment and through the
Wellhead Valley but also not integrate with the major railway links and industries which are to the west of Westbury.
John Bowley West Wilts
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