Archived press release

The Newbury Bypass Five Years On

17 November 2003

Five years after the opening of the Newbury bypass, one of the most controversial road-building projects of recent years, the new road has not solved the town's traffic problems, Friends of the Earth said today.

Congestion

Anecdotal evidence suggests Newbury town centre is just as congested at peak time as before the bypass opened. This is difficult to substantiate accurately, as no data on traffic levels in recent years is available to the public, despite frequent requests by local campaigners.

Development

The bypass has allowed significant development. Vodafone has built a new global HQ for 3,400 staff, vacating offices in the town centre. This has encouraged inward commuting as new occupiers fill their old offices. Unemployment locally is only (local unemployment is 0.8%). The local council will soon be put under pressure to allow an in-fill development of 1,500 houses between the town and the bypass west of Newbury.

Freight

Adrian Foster-Fletcher of Newbury Friends of the Earth, a local businessman who was a leading light in the campaign against the bypass, said:

Friends of the Earth's Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

"Newbury shows the futility of trying to solve our transport crisis by road-building. The Government claims that we can't build our way out of congestion, but still seems determined to spend billions of pounds building new roads and widening motorways. It's time for the Government to spend its transport money more wisely, on real solutions to our problems".

Notes

The Newbury bypass, which opened on 17^th November 1998, runs for nine miles to the west of the town. It is the second bypass of the original A34 through the town centre. The construction of the bypass, which cost over 100 million, was the scene of huge protests in 1996 because the road damaged:

• four Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs - the country's most important wildlife sites) at Snelsmore Common, the River Kennet, the River Lambourn and the Kennet Flood Plains (previously home to the Desmoulin's Whorl Snail, discovered during the construction of the road);

• the site of the First Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War in 1643; and

• the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Construction went ahead despite the Highways Agency admitting that the time saving for most vehicles on journeys through the town would be relatively small, at about two minutes.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust