A350 road
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The A350 is a north-south primary route in southern England, that runs from the M4 motorway in Wiltshire to Poole in Dorset. Starting at junction 17 of the M4 motorway north of Chippenham (51°30′53″N 2°07′18″W / 51.5148°N 2.1217°W), it goes past the small village of Lacock and then through the towns of Melksham, Westbury, Warminster, Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum, ending in Poole beside Poole Harbour, an English Channel port (50°42′31″N 1°59′35″W / 50.7087°N 1.9931°W). There have been many bypasses built along the A350, including at Shaftesbury in the 1950s, Chippenham, Warminster, Blandford Forum and most recently south of Melksham at Semington. Most parts of the route are single carriageway but some of the new bypasses are dual carriageway.
History
When first designated in 1922 the A350 ran only from Warminster to Poole. By 1948 the road had been extended north from Warminster to Chippenham on the former routes of the A363 and the A364. In the 1990s the road was extended north from Chippenham to the M4 Motorway by renumbering the A429.
Proposed developments
Westbury Bypass
A controversial £33 million bypass around Westbury was initially proposed in 1997 with public consultation and a selection of route options proposed in 1999. Wiltshire County Council's Environment and Transport Committee selected the Eastern Route (though it was the least popular) as the 'preferred route' in 2001, because the Council said that it offered the best and lowest cost way of relieving traffic congestion in the town centre. The council submitted an initial planning application during 2005. The council said that the government indicated that it was in favour of the project in 2006. The Council presented a further planning application in 2007.
The council's selected route (shown on this Google overlay map) would pass to the east of the town. The council expects it to reduce traffic through Westbury, create more space for cyclists & pedestrians and improve journey time reliability on the A350, by two minutes. It would also provide a new access road to the West Wilts Trading Estate, though not to the other Westbury Trading Estates, or the Railway Station or the designated Future Intermodal Freight Terminal. The Eastern Westbury Bypass scheme, would, by the council's own forecasts, cause increased heavy goods vehicle flow through other West Wiltshire communities, such as Southwick, which already have over twice the HGVs of Westbury. The eastern bypass route is supported by the 'Westbury Bypass Now' group.
The council's route, which runs close to the Westbury White Horse, two Sites of Special Scientific Interest, near Salisbury Plain and through a Special Landscape Area, is not included in the Regional Transport Priority for South West England. The route has been described as 'highly intrusive' by the council's landscape officer. It is attracting opposition from various environmental and local groups including the White Horse Alliance, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Woodland Trust, Friends of the Earth, Campaign for Better Transport (UK) and Wiltshire Wildlife.
The scheme was 'called in' in 2007. An Inquiry into the scheme was held in July 2008. It was adjourned until September–October after objectors noticed that some figures for lorry counts were out by 100%. The inquiry ended in the autumn of 2008. The decision was with John Denham the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The planning inspectors have now recommended refusal of planning permission for Wiltshire Council's eastern Westbury bypass scheme. So the scheme has been turned down by the Government.
References
External links
Coordinates: 51°05′21″N 2°09′59″W / 51.0891°N 2.1665°W
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A350_road
