Archived press release

Plans for blackdown hills road should be scrapped, study shows

5 February 2004

Friends of the Earth is calling for the scrapping of controversial plans to build a dual carriageway through the Blackdown Hills in Somerset, one of the most remote and tranquil areas of southern England, after a study by the Highways Agency [1] concluded that the environmental impact would be extremely damaging.

The Highways Agency concludes that dualling the A303 through the Blackdown Hills would have a "very large adverse" landscape impact. Eighteen kilometres of the 24km route would be within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The study also finds there will be a "very large adverse" potential impact on biodiversity because of damage to Long Lye and Long Lye Meadow, which are both designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest - the nation's finest wildlife sites. Woodlands, hedgerows and protected species would be affected.

The road proposal was one of the recommendations made in the London to South-West and South Wales multi-modal study (known as SWARMMS). The Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, approved the principle of a "second strategic road" to the West Country in December 2002, but delayed a decision on the exact line to be taken by the road. The Highways Agency was instructed to compare two options, either the existing A303 through the Blackdown Hills, or using the A358 to join the M5 at Taunton. Its report will be considered by the South West Regional Assembly which originally recommended to ministers that both the A303 and the A358 should be improved.

Friends of the Earth's South West Regional Campaigner Mike Birkin said:

"We don't need a second strategic road to the South West, but if the Government is determined to build one, then this report shows it should not be through the Blackdown Hills. The environmental impacts would be catastrophic. The alternative route is far from perfect, but it's the lesser of two evils".

Friends of the Earth also queries the spiralling costs of the SWARMMS road building project. In May 2002, the cost of dualling the A358 was estimated at 60 million [2]; but today's Highways Agency report puts the cost four times higher, at 246 million.

There are also concerns that the alternative route, using the A358, would open up land around the junction with the M5 near Taunton, resulting in strong pressure for further development, dispersing economic and social activity away from the historic town centre, leading to more car reliance, more congestion and more calls for road building.

SWARMMS concluded that just to expand roads would not be a solution to the transport problems of the South West. Better public transport and measures to reduce the growth in travel demand were needed as well. Unfortunately there is little sign of any such balance in the Government's approach. At least 680 million pounds' worth of road-widening schemes are now being promoted between Wiltshire and West Cornwall, while the Waterloo to Exeter railway line, running parallel to the A303 and partly reduced to single track in the 1960s, receives nothing.

Notes

[1] `London to South West and South Wales Multi Modal Study (SWARMMS) Further work by the Highways Agency - Report to South West Regional Assembly'

[2] London to South West and South Wales Multi Modal Study, SWARMMS FINAL REPORT, May 2002

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust