Meeting the Minister - A Positive Step Forward

On Monday 3rd August 2015, Stonehenge Traffic Action Group, together with a raft of other stakeholders, were invited to attend a round-table briefing in Amesbury with Andrew Jones MP on the state of play regarding the A303/A30/A358 corridor upgrade plan.

Andrew, in addition to being the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Transport with the dubious honour of having the brief to deliver the road investment strategy.  He can't help being a Yorkshireman and from the "wrong" side of the Pennines.

The meeting didn't begin to auspiciously.  Before the Minister arrived, I was accosted by a member of Amesbury Council, who pompously announced that this meeting was very much focusing on Amesbury and the Amesbury end of any road improvements.  As I say, he was a member - of the council.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case, with the Minister making quite clear that he was discussing the entirety of the Countess Roundabout to Berwick Down section of the A303 scheme. 

The meeting demonstrated that most parties understand the vital need to improve the A303, that it is part of the larger corridor plan and to fail to deliver the Stonehenge section would mean the whole strategic plan would fail.  Failure, this time, seems not to be an option - but we've heard similar assurances in the past.

A consensus is building that something has to be done, which in a way is a major step forward.  Stakeholders, STAG included, are holding bilateral meetings with each other to ensure that there are no surprises and issues are dealt with early.  

What were the key points emerging from the meeting?  Well, although there has been much talk of tunnels, nothing is yet set in stone.  Highways England are looking at all the options previously considered, eliminating those that have little chance of success and focusing in on the best option.  They will submit this and all the other information as part of the Development Consent Order process, which replaces a Public Inquiry.  The re will be an examination of the facts and figures in public, but their is no adversarial element to the DCO process.  This process has already begun and should take 5 years to complete.  It clearly involves a heck of a lot of work and Highways England expressed a wish to engage with stakeholders throughout this process.

A lot of key issues were raised.  Perhaps the most important for all locally was what happens between now and when any project comes to fruition.  A lot of the discussion focused on the need to improve both the Countess and Longbarrow roundabouts - neither of which are allowing traffic flow during peak periods and the tailbacks encourage rat running.  The minister seemed to take that on board, though time will tell if they achieve anything.

As far as the Longbarrow to Berwick Down section went, they are focusing on the northern route (ie north of the current A303).  Those representing Winterbourne Stoke pointed out that we expected a lot more consideration being given to sound-proofing the section that ran across the Till valley to protect the village from road noise.  It was noted that the previous scheme involved raising the road on a causeway - bizarre given the history of the River Till - which was no longer acceptable.  It had been done to try and get rid of a lot of the spoil from the previously planned tunnel.  We raised the issue of the phosphatic chalk discovered along the possible tunnel route and the suggestion that disturbing it might release radon.  It was clear that both Andrew Jones and Highways England were well aware of this and they commented that appropriate ways of disposing of such material would need to be found.

The only question that Highways England didn't answer, in fact they were told NOT to answer it by Andrew Jones, was one we asked for information.  We asked how deep the tunnel might be, below ground level, at two points:  Stonehenge Bottom and at its closest predicted point to Stonehenge itself.  We indicated that at this early stage, we weren't after specifics; just a general indication of depth - were we talking a metre, 10 metres or 100 metres.   Given that Highways England have been talking about a tunnel 2.9km long - not 2 to 3 km but 2.9km, we do find it a little bit odd that they aren't prepared to give a similarly important estimate on depth at this stage.  At the end of the day, the depth of the excavation for the tunnel roof is going to be the measurement that is going to have to be defended the most in terms of the probability, or not, of damaging as yet undiscovered buried features.  Like the tunnel length, this sort of discussion is best started early, so at least the most specious arguments are rapidly surfaced and dismissed.

The only note of dissent came from Amesbury Abbey, in relation to how Highways England might change the Countess Roundabout as part of the overall scheme.  The suggestion was that the A303 would cross above the A345 at a raised level.  The objection here was that this would increase sound levels experienced by elderly residents of Amesbury Abbey.  A rational concern, but one which could surely be alleviated by careful screening and road surface selection?  Like many of the possible concerns, lets get them out in the open now, identify solutions and move on.  Throwing Teddy's in corners will get us nowhere fast.

We all know it isn't going to be easy; there are a lot of vested interests.  There are some for whom no compromise is acceptable and yet compromise we must have - the transport needs of the living and for generations yet to come have to be balanced with the need for preservation of things built by generations long dead, and quality of life has to be balanced with improved access to part of mankind's rich heritage.  It's a huge, huge ask, but we are prepared to play our part in building the consensus that is needed to make this work.

It rather begs the question, dear reader.  Are YOU?

Goodwill Hunting - A Little More News of the A303 Feasibility Study

As we said a couple of posts ago, there seems to have been very little activity over the summer regarding the A303/A30/A358 corridor feasibility study, which, given the Parliamentary recess, summer holidays and, for once, a half-way reasonable summer, isn’t all that surprising.  That isn’t to say nothing has been going on.  It seems the study is a bit like a swan on water – not much going on above the surface, but some furious (?) paddling going on below.

Robert Goodwill MP

We are a bit disappointed though.  Back at the start of the year, we (STAG) wrote to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, Robert Goodwill MP, expressing our interest, as a local pressure group in the Stonehenge area, in getting involved in all stages of the study.  Back in January, Goodwill’s Assistant Private Secretary came back with the following response:

A Minion, but maybe not the correct DfT Minion?

“…We are also conducting national events to gather views from environmental organisations and other motoring and business groups.

We understand your interest in the study and rest assured, we plan to engage more widely with local groups in the next few weeks. I will ensure that you are kept informed”.

An apparent show of goodwill by Goodwill and his trusty minion.   Unfortunately, these were hollow words and there has been no engagement or even contact as promised.

We do get a few snippets from the meetings that are going ahead though.  The latest was held in Taunton just over a week ago. John Glen MP (Con – Salisbury) was the only MP there at the start of the meeting.  Wiltshire Council were represented by Cllr Fleur De Rhe-Philippe and Mr Parvis Khansari.  David Heath MP (Lib-Dem - Somerton and Frome) represented Somerset interests.

John Glen MP

John Glen pressed home the well-considered view that they realised that any solution without a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke, and a deliverable solution at Stonehenge, was not going to make the A303 a reliable strategic route to SW.

David Heath MP

 David Heath seems to have suggested that the DfT should press ahead with improving other bits of the corridor, even if a solution at Stonehenge is too expensive.  To us that smacks of selfish-self-interest and is profoundly illogical; spending lots of public money to improve roads that the majority of users at peak periods will still have to queue to join and to leave.  A case of blinkered vision!  Let’s hope he is taken to task by Salisbury Lib-Dems when he visits the city this week.

All in all, it seems that the officials at DfT don’t want too much detailed information out in the public domain until they have got all the costings sorted out.  It is clear that they are considering more than one potential solution and options for solutions that both involve and don’t involve tunnels of varying lengths, along various routes.   Superficially, at least, it seems they have kept open minds and haven’t yet been forced to accept historic solutions.

In typical government fashion, when some detail does emerge, we might expect to see costings for several different options with a “Do Nothing” option (there are significant costs attached to doing nothing in terms of lost tourist and business) and a “preferred” option or two.  Time will tell.

The good news is that English Heritage and the National Trust seem to be being a little more open-minded than they have been in the past.  On the down-side, the Stonehenge Alliance seem to be less willing to compromise.   Sadly, that is what it will need to come down to, negotiation and compromise by all parties.  

John Hayes MP

 In a further development on Monday this week, John Glen MP took the opportunity to press his case for the A303 improvement with the new roads minister the Rt Hon John Hayes MP (Con - South Holland and The Deepings).  Mr Glen particularly stressed the need to produce a solution for the whole of the A303 corridor and that to improve parts of the A303 without solving the Stonehenge conundrum would be a failure .

The Department for Transport Set The Scene

So, what's been happening with the A303/A30/A358 Feasibility Study since January 2014?  There was a meeting on 20th May 2014 in Taunton and the Department for Transport provided some useful background information.   Clearly, not everyone can attend these meetings, but there are an awful lot of people who have an interest in the process that is now underway and in the final outcome.  It seems only sensible to allow people to see the information for themselves and give them the opportunity to question and comment.

Rather than give you our impressions and opinions, here is what the Department of Transport presented.  It's the sort of thing that, given the level of public interest, the DfT really ought to be publishing on their own web-site. Please make your own minds up and let us know what you think.

140429 A303 Feasibility Study Reference Group Meeting Final 200514 v1 by Blonini1

Does "A Degree Of Success" Amount To Abject Failure?

On Thursday, the Western Morning News ran a story on comments from Roads Minister, Robert Goodwill under the headline: "Minister promises 'success' in A303 funding campaign."  The same story ran in the Western Daily Press yesterday and this was featured in our sister blog STAG Stonehenge Traffic Action Group.   But was the story really such good news?

What Robert Goodwill seems to have actually said, in response to a question specifically about funding for the A47 improvement plan was:

"I should like to make it clear that this is not a competition in which there can only be one winner,"

"I hazard to suggest that there will be a degree of success in all six areas that we have identified."

OK, so he is merely suggesting that all 6 schemes might have a degree of success - at best maybe an unsubtle hint, at worst a face-saving expedient to give the impression of substance where in reality, there is only a wisp of smoke.

Even if he is correct, what benefit is a "degree of success?"  I would argue very little, four-fifths of bugger-all, not a lot, nothing of any real value. 

Why?  Well, isn't it obvious?   Simply improving a few bits of the A303/A358/A30 isn't anything more than window-dressing - it might make a bit of the road look prettier, but isn't going to have any major impact on journey times along the whole length of the road.  In fact, a "degree of success" is probably a more PC way to describe an abject failure. 

My fear is that this is the first stage of a British government saying, yet again, that they haven't the collective wit, wisdom, or motivation to solve the problem of getting the A303 past Stonehenge and the Blackdown Hills.

Never forget:

"Under every stone lurks a politician!"

                              Aristophanes

                            

Minister promises ‘success’ in A303 funding campaign
Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Minister-promises-8216-success-8217-A303-funding/story-21102168-detail/story.html#JUCUCWzyLYuD7Opr.99

Minister promises ‘success’ in A303 funding campaign
Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Minister-promises-8216-success-8217-A303-funding/story-21102168-detail/story.html#JUCUCWzyLYuD7Opr.99

Minister promises ‘success’ in A303 funding campaign
Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Minister-promises-8216-success-8217-A303-funding/story-21102168-detail/story.html#JUCUCWzyLYuD7Opr.99

Showing Solidarity With Somerset And Making A Difference

From the outset, WISBAng has tried not to be overly parochial when it comes to the need to dual the A303 - we want to create the legacy of a viable southern route to the West Country - all the way, to the very tip of Cornwall.  So while we do report on those issues closest to home in Wiltshire and around Stonehenge, we keep a weather eye open for other campaigning activities along the A303/A358/A30 corridor between the Hampshire border and Penzance.

We've also stressed, several times, the need to engage with other campaigns to improve the A303.  We are not alone - and neither are the other campaigners.  So when we heard that, as part of National

Newspaper week, the Somerset-based Western Gazette had been short-listed for the prestigious Making a Difference award.

Making a Difference aims to highlight the power of local newspapers to campaign for positive change in the communities they serve and judges have selected 30 of the strongest editorial campaigns across the UK.

So, why not help raise the profile of the A303 campaigns across the south west of England by voting for the Western Gazette and helping them to win!

Click here to register your vote.

Local Newspaper Week, which starts today, Making a Difference aims to highlight the power of local newspapers to campaign for positive change in the communities they serve. Judges have selected 30 of the strongest editorial campaigns across the UK.
Read more at http://www.westerngazette.co.uk/A303-campaign-Making-Difference-Western-Gazette/story-21085853-detail/story.html#XxpIFzsE5vG1z65w.99

CPRE Ostrich Has Head Stuck in Sand for A Decade

There's an interesting, though somewhat depressing article in today's (April 24th 2014) Daily Telegraph entitled "Stonehenge tunnel plans could be revived".  The article is by the Telegraph's Transport Correspondent, Nick Collins and is in response to the Department for Transport's  A303/A30/A358 Corridor Feasibility Study Scope Document which you can find here.  I strongly suggest that you read it for yourselves as I fear Mr Collins has misrepresented some of it in his article.

What is more disturbing are the comments of the CPRE below:

"The Campaign to Protect Rural England said several of the spots under examination, including Stonehenge, are only congested at certain times of year and do not merit major development.
Ralph Smyth, senior transport campaigner for the CPRE, said: “The traffic [at Stonehenge] hasn’t increased in the last 10 years and it does not justify the huge cost of a tunnel.”
A long tunnel would at least be preferable to a dual carriageway at the surface, which could cause the historic site to lose its world heritage status, he added".  

I'm not sure where they have been for the last 10 years, but as anyone who lives alongside the A303, or drives along it regularly, to say that the traffic at Stonehenge hasn't increased over the last 10 years is risible.  It's worse than that, it's damned dangerous.  Opinion is one thing and evidence quite another.  I would strongly suggest that Ralph Smyth takes a bit of time to read traffic flow data and projections before he makes any further pronouncements.  In particular, he should take a look at Somerset County Council's excellent Economic Impact Study and the figures contained therein, not to mention the traffic studies conducted on behalf of Wiltshire Council and English Heritage.

If you want to take this up with the CPRE directly, then their contact details are:

National Office
Campaign to Protect Rural England
5-11 Lavington Street
London
SE1 0NZ

Tel: 020 7981 2800
Fax: 020 7981 2899

Email: info@cpre.org.uk

Devon County Council Thinking on the A303/A30 Stuck in the Devonian Age

Devon County Council currently have a survey running on the SurveyMonkey website.  You can find it here.

The sad thing is, when you read the questions it seems that Devon County Council are thinking along very narrow lines.  Statements like:

"Recognising that much of this stretch is through the Blackdown Hills which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, any solution must be sensitive to the environment. Given the economic climate, it is also likely that any improvements will take place over a long period of time, so they must be planned and work in harmony together as the scheme evolves. Dualling is not likely to occur, but please outline your thoughts on how the problems detailed above might be solved", are terribly negative, and yet positively Devonian (in the geological sense!).  This attitude to the A303 is depressingly common. 

If you ever use the A303 over the Blackdown Hills, I strongly urge you to take the survey and let Devon County Council know what you think about the problems that need to be addressed and the opportunities that exist to solve them.

Like the Stonehenge A303 section, the Blackdown Hills are going to be a hotbed of contention and rightly so, it's another beautiful area of the country and part of the reason many are heading west in the first place.  Just like the Stonehenge section, there are lots of vested interests and pet solutions that cloud the issue, get folks hot under the collar and divert them from productive thinking.  So, as with Stonehenge, the Blackdown Hills need special attention.

What is it we are actually trying to achieve along the A303/A30 corridor and what are the compromises that no-one wants to make?  I'd argue the following, and given the recent problems with the Exeter-Penzance rail line, I'd argue even more strenuously than previously:

- we want a fast, reliable and sustainable route running from the Hampshire border to the tip of Cornwall;
- we want to maximise the number of routes (rail, A303 M4/M5) as far westwards as possible for maximum resilience;
- it must have minimal impact on local communities;
- it must have minimal impact on areas of outstanding natural beauty, SSI and the like;
- it has to be affordable

The route options seem to be along the current route of the A303 - it's always going to be hilly and have twists and turns and be vulnerable to adverse weather, but it does have the advantage of being short and impacting on a very small population.

Second is diverting off the current A303 at Ilminster, along the A358 towards Taunton and then joining the M5.  Attractive to some as it avoids the Blackdown Hills, but is the least resilient route option available as it merges all the east-west traffic well to the east of Exeter.

Third is the southern option, cutting south west from Ilminster and then following the path of the A35, between the Blackdown Hills AONB and the East Devon AONB.  The attraction of this route is that it avoids cutting through the centre of the Blackdown Hills AONB and keeps two trunk roads running to the west until Exeter.  On the downside, it is the route that would affect the greatest number of communities and two AONB.

But again, perhaps innovation is needed here.  Who says that both carriageways of the A303 have to run along the same route?  A  fourth option would be to take westbound traffic along the current route of the A303 and A30 from Ilminster to Exeter.  Eastbound traffic could be routed along the M5 to Taunton and back to the current route at Ilminster.  Of course, this might prove an absolute embuggerance for the small communities along the current route of the A303, but it's a question that needs to be asked.   There are possibly other innovative solutions  - westbound via the A35 and eastbound via the M5, etc - but all need to be identified and put on the table!

John Glen's A303 Blitzkrieg Continues

In yesterday's post we promised to provide more detail on the Commons debate on the A303 yesterday.  As John Glen MP has done a stirling job in putting it on his own blog, there seems little point in duplicating his effort.

So, look here for the details of the debate.

One extract from John's blog that bears repeating here, as it sums up the feelings of many in STAG and in the villages alongside the A303, the A358 and the A30, of all political persuasions, is this:

My constituents have been promised so much on this issue by many Ministers over many years; sadly, they have been let down every time. I am determined that they will not be let down again. I ask the Minister to commit today to ensuring that our hopes for the A303 can become a reality. I know that he is a plain-speaking Yorkshireman. I look for plain speaking in his response to us Wiltshire folk, who are fed up with constant words and little action.

Here, here, John!  Here, here.

John has also written an article for Politics Home yesterday on the A303, which is here, and his column in the Salisbury Journal this week will also focus on it. He was with BBC Wiltshire this morning and he will be continuing to speak to journalists today across a range of media.

We've heard mutterings in some quarters that WiSBAng must be a Tory mouthpiece, given the amount of coverage we have given to John Glen in recent weeks.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The person hanging over our shoulders as we write this was very active in running the campaign of one of John's competitors at the last general election and curses every time we thank John.  Frankly, this is an issue that transcends party politics.

The bottom line is that we will continue to support all those who make a positive contribution to solving this longstanding problem and we will bring to task those who are "all wind and piss" like some of the tanyard Tories of Wiltshire Council - as James Joyce might have phrased it and probably phrased it better even than John Glen :)  As we said, this issue transcends party politics, so we will be equally snarky about Lazy Lib-Dems, Useless UKIPs, Gormless Greens and Lacklustre Labourites. Praise will be equally fairly distributed.

LHVs and What They Might Mean for the A303 and the West of England

LHVs - Longer, Heavier Vehicles - have been back in the news again this week, with an interesting story in the Western Gazette of Friday 21st February 2014 with the suitably emotive title of "A303 DUAL IT: New Laws Could See Monster Trucks Wreak Havoc on the A303".

The article begins: "...Mega trucks measuring up to 82ft in length could be allowed into Britain under new EU laws. Draft legislation being considered by the European Parliament would permit lorries longer than two double decker buses, and weighing up to 60 tonnes, to cross international borders for the first time..."

We thought we'd better take a look, and then take a position on this story.  Clearly, the A303 as it stands, is already unsuitable for the types of HGV loads already being carried - especially on the single-carriageway sections which despite Highways Agency bleatings, are too narrow to accommodate the current generation of HGVs.  Roundabouts on the A303 regularly have HGVs overturning on them because they fail to negotiate them at speed.

So, what is the truth about these Mega trucks?  We all know the danger of relying on newspapers of accurate information - on just about anything - so we went back to try and find the origins of this story from some more reputable sources.  We found two interesting reports.  The first "Longer and/or Longer and Heavier Goods Vehicles (LHVs) – a Study of the Likely Effects if Permitted in the UK: Final Report" written by the UK's Transport Research Labs in 2008:

This makes clear that this whole story is nothing new.  In fact, two UK companies pressed to be allowed to trial LFVs in the UK as long ago as 2005, but were refused.  As interest in LFVs was growing in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, the DfT commissioned TRL and Herriott-Watt University.  It's a very long report, but if you are interested, it is well worth reading the Executive Summary and the précis of the findings.  As might be expected, the findings are bit of a curates egg, but overall, it seems to come out in favour - but there were problems anticipated by both the length and the weight of these vehicles.

One interesting finding is reproduced here:

"...If LHVs were to be permitted then European legislation would be very likely to substantially constrain the UKs ability to permit only those specific types of LHV with characteristics considered desirable to protect the UK infrastructure. The current European legislation would also be likely to make it difficult to require the fitting of specific additional safety equipment that could mitigate any increased accident risks. Suitable amendments to the European legislation would be required to be certain of the outcome. The UK regulations on speed limits for multi-trailer combinations would also be likely to require amendment, even if such vehicles were to be permitted by Special Order, because their speed would otherwise be limited to 40 mile/h on motorways and 20 mile/h on all other roads..."

Reading between the lines, we think this is really an admission of it being a case of when it happens and not if it happens.

Another concern was that introducing LFVs might precipitate a shift of freight traffic from rail to road.  Given the loss of the main rail link to the West Country in recent weeks, the pressure to provide a credible alternative can only grow.

The second paper, written for the European Commission in 2009, "Longer and Heavier Vehicles for Freight Transport" is also of interest to us as it begins:

"The European Commission is considering the implications of allowing the use of Longer and Heavier Vehicles a for road freight transport (abbreviated as LHVs in this study), measuring up to 25.25 m and weighing up to 60 tons, for the whole of the European Union transport system. Such trucks are already in circulation in Finland and Sweden, while several Member States are considering their introduction".

So, as we suspected, the Western Gazette is hyping this aspect of their story a wee bit; this is far from a new plan and the EU have been considering it for at least 5 years.  As far as the plan to use them, eventually, in the UK as a whole, it really shouldn't be a surprise.

However, where we would agree with the Western Gazette is in the likely impact on the A303/A358/A30 corridor.  It would be an unmitigated disaster with, we suspect, some dire consequences in terms of lives lost and blighted by accident - all the evidence suggests more accidents per km travelled than for existing HGVs.  They would be horrendous on any of the single carriageway sections of the A303 such as that past Stonehenge and through Winterbourne Stoke, but imagine them trying to negotiate the bends and steep climbs of the Blackdown Hills.

Lest anyone believe that no-one would even consider putting these things on West Country roads as they stand, then this diagram from the report should shatter that illusion:

See the little red dots in Cornwall!  Enough said.

So what is our position on LHVs?  Well, in the short term, even with the rail problems that the West Country now faces and is likely to face in the foreseeable future, we should be robust in keeping them off the A303, the A358 and the A30.  The risk to life and limb is simply too great.

In the longer term. the government has to look at an integrated traffic infrastructure plan for the west of England - providing a sustainable rail link to the tip of Cornwall as well as dualling the A303.  If this can be done, then there may be less of a need for LHV's - though we fear the economic and environmental case for doing so may be hard to overturn. 

The Fragile Routes to the West of England - Wessex Sub Aqueanus

Over the last month, we have seen the fragility of the transport infrastructure through Wessex.  First we had the closure of the A303 in Somerset A303 between the Podimore and Cartgate Roundabouts on Christmas Eve when the River Yeo burst its banks.

Then we had a second closure of the A303, at the Deptford Junction with the A36, caused by rising groundwater levels on the western edge of Salisbury Plain.  Even after the initial flood subsided a wee bit, we still had a contraflow working for some time as it took some time for all carriageways and the slip roads to clear.  Even this week, the A303 westbound has been closed at night to allow the damage caused by the flooding to be repaired.

The rain has continued at a lower intensity for the last couple of weeks, and the A303 seems to be safe for the moment.  That said, groundwater levels haven't dropped at all on Salisbury Plain, even though the levels in the River Till, through Winterbourne Stoke have dropped around 5-10 cm.  Today, the Tilshead borehole levels look like this:

Of course, yesterday, we had yet more rain and storm surges throughout the Wessex region.  We had 14.7mm here in Winterbourne Stoke, but that was trivial compared to levels further West.  The Somerset Levels,  already suffering for over a month from the floods, exacerbated by the abject failure of the Environment Agency to effectively dredge blocked water channels, has water levels rising yet again.  King Canute couldn't hold back the water and sadly, it seems, neither can Prince Charles - but at least he took the time to go, showed REAL understanding of the issues and concerned for those he met.

The rain and the spring tides and high winds wrought damage further west in Dawlish, tearing out the ballast under the main line from Exeter to Penzance, ripping out the adjacent road and threatening houses and businesses.

This morning on  TV,  a Network Rail spokesman was suggesting that it might take 6 weeks and tens of millions of pounds, if not one to two hundred million pounds,  to put right the damage caused in an hour of nature at its most furious.  And still more rain and high winds are predicted in the coming days - with rain levels on high ground predicted to be up to 20-40mm per day - higher than anything we have seen this winter by a good margin.

This all raises a number of very important questions for the Wessex transport infrastucture.  We have lost the major rail line for a number of weeks - assuming there is no further damage.  Passengers and freight are going to have to transfer to the roads - the A303 and the M4/M5 further north.  With the additional predicted rain, there seems to be a possibility that further flooding of the A303 might occur this weekend or early next week - pushing all that traffic on to the northern route.  

Engineers talk of a "single point of failure" (SPOF!), which is the part of a system, that if it fails, will cause the rest of the system to fail.  With multiple means of transport through Wessex, there was no SPOF, but it is possible that within hours or days, there will only be one point in the transport infrastructure left and only one to fail - the M4/M5 corridor.  A single minor incident on the motorway could stop traffic in any numbers getting through Wiltshire/Avon and in to Devon and Cornwall. Diversionary routes south through the Somerset levels are simply not viable.

I hope politicians locally and nationally are looking at this and thinking of the consequences.  In our campaign to improve the A303 west from the Hampshire border, we are often told that it will be the economic case that decides whether the A303 is improved,  rather than providing yet more roads/extra carriageways  in urban areas.  Somerset Council are pretty much on the ball and have made an excellent financial case for improving the A303/A358/A30 corridor.  Wiltshire Council seem to be riding very much on their coat tails - or worse.  Their level of engagement and activity has been described to me in very graphic terms:  "Thumbs up bums - brains in neutral!"  Certainly, trying to get a response from those with a transport brief on the Council is nigh on impossible - Wiltshire Council - where people mutter.

Perhaps Mother Nature has done us a major service by pointing out the real economic issues involved here.  From Stonehenge westwards along the whole of the A303/A358/A30 corridor, tourism is the major industry - and to take advantage of tourism, there is one over-riding priority - to get the tourists to the places they want to visit.  No means of the tourist getting there, no tourism.  No tourism, no jobs.  No jobs - no economy.

To support the tourism, goods need to be shipped in.  No rail and no road, no goods shipped in.  No goods, no tourists, no employment, no economy.  And, of course, everything that goes in has to get out again - along the same. limited routes.

For the Wessex region, it really is that simple - the transport infrastructure is its life blood - and with so few alternatives, it really is a unique situation that must be addressed as such.  Perhaps even Wiltshire Council can be encouraged to de-digitate and get on with it!

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Why an obscure reference to Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Pink Floyd's debut album from 1967 you might ask?  A good question, and one for which there is a good answer - Well,  an answer at least.

I suppose the Wind in the Willows reference is only fair given the fact that the A303 has been making passable attempts to imitate a river for the past few weeks and you can frequently find examples of Badger, Ratty, Mr Toad and other characters lying immobile and festering by the side of it. 

In this case though, the reference really is to Pink Floyd.  First, they are my favourite band and any excuse I can think of to listen to their music has to be leapt at.  Second. I was reading some Tweets from another STAG member, @tragicyclist - a keen cyclist.  He and his friends had been complaining about the lack of cycle lanes.  Although I ride mountain bikes,  I'd avoided a road back because the prospect of riding on the A303, to get out of the village, is terrifying.   However, for all sorts of reasons, I now have a road bike, and that got me to thinking of Pink Floyd and the Piper at the Gates of Dawn in particular.  The final track on side 2 of the UK version of the album is Bike.

I've got a bike.
You can ride it if you like.
It's got a basket, a bell that rings,
and things to make it look good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

That's all a very convoluted way of getting to the real point about this post.  If we are going to spend a King's Ransom dualing the A303/A358/A30 corridor, why not be really imaginative?  This is meant to be the Highway to the Sun, after all; especially when it is not being the Highway to Hell.

Why not take the opportunity of creating a purpose built cycleway and footpath at the same time?

It could be shared with pedestrians and, given the wealth of interesting things along the course of the A303, could make a walking or cycling holiday in its own right.   Now I don't mean painting a narrow strip down the side of the A303 and assuming that cars and lorries will stay out of it.

They won't!  In any event - mixing pedestrians and cyclists with traffic travelling at 70-90mph isn't a particularly bright idea. 

I don't even think it would be sensible to set a cycleway/pedestrian lane directly alongside the carriageway - too clos, too noisy and still way too intimidating.  What I'd like to see is something like the cycleways around the outskirts of Oxford and in many European cities.

A cycleway and footpath physically separated from the road by a grass strip and, ideally, by an Armco barrier to stop accidental incursions by motor vehicles.  We have a once only opportunity with the A303 and any dualing activity that might happen and we should make as much of it as we can.  What do YOU think?

David Cameron "Committed" - Shock, Horror..

Not often that you can use a striking headline like that, but in this case it seems legitimate.   Well, at least according to the Exeter Express and Echo who are today running a very interesting story on the A303.

The story reports that David Cameron, in a letter to Devon MP Neil Parish, has said that he and the Conservative Party are committed to improving the A303/A358/A30 corridor.

In his letter, the Prime Minister is reported to have said:

"I very much recognise the strategic importance of this corridor and therefore of finding solutions to its problems, and one of the elements of the study process will be to try to reach agreement on the respective priorities for investment along the corridor.

“The Department (of Transport) expects this study to be completed by spring 2015. Through this feasibility study the Department will identify potential future investment proposals for the route and the priorities, as part of its process for longer term investment planning...”

 “...this Government is committed to finding solutions to the problems on the corridor”.

Talk, of course, is cheap.  Let's see what happens next.

The A303/A30/A358 Corridor Feasibility Study

I've just received the following information on the A303 feasibility study from John Glen MP.  I thought it important enough to flag up as it is, without any comment from me, at least at this stage.   Robert Goodwill, the Transport Minister, writes:

I want to give as may folk as possible the chance to read it.  If you have any comments, please send them to me and to John Glen.

It will also be interesting to see if STAG, as a local voice of stakeholders here in Wiltshire, will be invited to participate on the 24th in Taunton?

A303/A30/A358 Corridor Feasibility Study

Background
Following the 2013 Spending Review, the Government announced plans for the biggest ever upgrade of our strategic roads network. Government has also committed to carrying out a number of feasibility studies to tackle some of the most notorious road hot spots in the country.
The feasibility studies will look at these problems in detail and identify potential schemes to solve them. They will be progressed alongside the Highways Agency’s Route Based Strategy programme which is considering the current and future performance of the network. When taken together they will inform future roads investment decisions as part of the Roads Investment Strategy development process.

The A303/A30/A358 corridor
The A303 corridor provides an important role in connecting the South East and South West regions. It is dualled over much of its length but between the M3 motorway, A358 and A30 there remain several unimproved single carriageway sections which cause congestion, especially during summer weekends.
Given the history of progress with investment proposals in the A303 corridor, at the time of the 2010 Spending Review, the Government did not have sufficiently developed business cases for investment proposals to be able to confirm specific investment projects in the A303 corridor.
Somerset County Council held a summit with other relevant stakeholders in 2012 the outcome of which was a commitment by the region for further work on the relative prioritisation of potential interventions and consideration of possible funding avenues. The grouping of local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships produced an initial analysis and business case for future improvements to the A303 corridor, to reiterate the importance of investment in the corridor, particularly the wider economic benefits to the South West economy.
The Department for Transport and the Highways Agency have worked closely with the South West local authorities on the details of the analysis and business case for potential investment, providing assistance and views on the methodology adopted and views on what further analysis may be necessary.

Study Aims and Objectives
The aim of the study is to identify the opportunities and understand the case for future investment solutions on the A303/A30/A358 corridor that are deliverable, affordable and offer value for money.

The specific objectives of the study are to:

•   Identify and assess the case, deliverability and timing of specific road investments that address exiting problems on the A303 corridor.
  
•   Understand the balance of benefits and impacts from potential individual investment proposals and any additional benefits or impacts from investment on corridor basis.
  
•   Evidence where possible, the wider economic benefits from the road investment in the corridor.
  
•   Understand the impacts of potential investment in the A303 corridor on the performance of other road transport corridors to the South West region.
  
•   Understand the impacts of the proposed investment in the A303 corridor on the resilience of the road transport network.
  
  Geographic and modal scope
  The proposed geographic scope of the study should consider the length of the A303/A30 corridor from the junction between the A303 and M3 in the east to the junction between the A30 and the M5 in the west. The geographic scope of the study would also include the A358 from its junction with the A303 at Ilminster to its junction with the M5. The Blackdown Hills are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and as such we do not propose to consider large-scale road building in that area.
  

The modal scope of the study will be predominantly road-based and would need to understand the details of performance and current investment proposals for the identified parts of the strategic road network, as well as the local authority road network, particularly the A358.


Questions to be addressed
There are a number of questions that need to be addressed as part of the study work, and these are set out below.

•   Given the assessment of current and future performance of the A303 corridor are there specific priority location/problems that should be addressed?
  
•   Are there viable potential solutions to these problems which are deliverable, affordable and offer value for money?
  
•   What are the potential timescales for the delivery of the identified potential solutions?
  
•   Are there additional benefits or impacts from combinations of potential solutions over and above those for individual solutions?
  
•   Is there evidence of the impact of investment in potential solutions on the resilience of the road network?
  
•   What are the impacts of investment in the A303 corridor on other road transport links/corridors to the South West?
  
•   Have the potential solutions identified fully considered and optimised the environmental opportunities and mitigation that the potential transport investment could bring?
  
•   Are there any changes necessary to current responsibilities for the management and operation of the road network in the A303 corridor?
  
•   Is further work/analysis required for Government to be able to make specific investment decisions, and if so what are the timescale of such work?
  Phases of work
  The study will be completed in several stages which are set out below.
  

Stage 0:  Agreement to the scope, timing and management arrangements for the study
Stage 1:  Review of evidence and identification of problems along the corridor
Stage 2: Work to finalise the range of infrastructure proposals that could address the problems along the corridor
Stage 3: Work to assess the affordability, value for money and deliverability of prioritised infrastructure proposals

Governance Arrangements

A303/A30/A358 Reference Group
Given the wide range of stakeholder interest in the A303/A30/A358 study it is proposed to establish a Reference Group for the study. The main role of the Reference Group will be to ensure stakeholders’ views are captured and considered during the study process, particularly at key points in the study work and at times of the development of key outputs.