Before getting up to Stonehenge, I had an assignation with a lovely lady called Rebecca Rooney from BBC Wiltshire, for an interview on the A303 funding announcement. We met up on the forecourt of the Bell Inn, Winterbourne Stoke, with the fast-moving, early morning, commuter traffic providing an "interesting" backdrop. We had the usual mix of large HGVs travelling at well over the 40 mph limit to help them get up the hills on either side of the village. We had school kids using the light-controlled crossing with fast moving vehicles bearing down on them with seemingly little realisation that there was a crossing there at all. Then we had the usual nightmare of villagers trying to get out of the village onto the A303 - with one taking almost 10 minutes to find a nearly safe gap into which to pull out.
I'll even forgive Rebecca for calling me Mr Churchill - perhaps I should go into politics after all and give John Glenn MP a run for his money?
So what's the big deal? Well, the Government announced that it was going to be earmarking some £15 billion for important road projects across the UK. Its worth contrasting that sum with the £17 billion earmarked (so far) for the HS2 - and bear in mind that only 10% of goods traffic and a fraction of passenger traffic is shipped by rail.
Of the £15 billion, some £2 billion has been ear-marked for the A303 and £1.3 billion earmarked for a tunnel under Stonehenge - though it isn't clear if the £1.3 billion is separate from the £2 billion, or the major part of it. It sounds a lot of money, but how far will it go? Well lets have some facts and figures:
- dual carriageway cost between £20 million/mile to £25 million/mile to build on average - so £2 billion would buy 80-100 milesof dual carriageway - much more than is needed for the A303. £0.7 billion gets you 28-35 miles - probably about right.
- tunnels cost a darned site more to build than dual carriageway, though I'm not sure £1.3 billion is necessarily realistic.
-to put things in perspective, the A3 Hindhead tunnel at 1.9km long cot the bulk of the £371 million spent on the whole 4km project. However, the "Big Dig" project in Boston (US) cost in excess of £12.5 billion for a tunnel twice the length of the one proposed for Stonehenge.
So, we welcome the news - but with a healthy scepticism. After all, we'vee been here before. Back in the late 1980s, Maggie Thatcher promised A303 widening as a package of road building measures that were claimed to be the biggest since Roman times - they failed to deliver. More recently, the last Labour government promised to do the job, but killed the project on cost grounds. So in some ways, here we go again.
However, there are a few differences this time. Firstly, English Heritage and the National Trust appear to be singing from the same song-sheet and have agreed a plan that minimises impact on the World Heritage Site. Pragmatism is being shown by many other parties too, recognising that the A303 is a strategic route and it has to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Pragmatism will also be needed here in Winterbourne Stoke - clearly we will benefit from the removal of traffic from the centre of the village, but there are risks - noise from a dual carriageway situated to the north of the village being an obvious issue. So we will need to fight hard to ensure the environmental issues are addressed to our satisfaction and benefit. I am sure there will be other issues.
The best news is the fact that they plan to tie the funding into the Infrastructure Bill that is currently going through parliament. It's all tied into making the Highways Agency a company and ensuring funding certainty in 5-year tranches. It doesn't mean that a future government couldn't stop things going ahead, but they would have to change legislation as well as changing their minds.
So - a healthy scepticism. As I write, Rebecca Rooney is reporting a similar healthy scepticism from Larkhill and other villagers
Up at Stonehenge, lots of positive vibes about the plan. STAGs Janice Hassett seemed to be more in demand from interviewers than did Nick Clegg - but then she is a bit of a straight-talking, fire-brand who calls a spade, a spade.
It was a good opportunity to buttonhole people like the regional head of the Highways Agency to ask about what happens in the meantime about the A303 nightmare. Specifically, we raised the issue of the dangers of Longbarrow Roundabout - as did other STAG members. We'll see if this has any effect.
So - lets see what happens when all the fuss about today's news dies down and the economic realities hit home.
