ROAD campaigners are gearing up for another battle against major highway plans for Wessex that could impact on the A36 near Romsey.

A coalition of environmental and countryside groups are opposing re-emerging plans for 'strategic road corridors' from the Channel ports to the M4 and the Midlands.

Campaigners say these new freight highways will not only wreck protected landscapes and increase carbon emissions but also open up the countryside for housing estates and warehouses.

Thirty years ago campaigners defeated plans for upgrades to the A36 including a bypass at Wellow near Romsey.

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The A36/A350 Corridor Alliance (ACA) was set up in the early 1990s in Salisbury to fight government plans for a fast dual-carriageway between the M4 and the M27.

It is now facing the threat that schemes scrapped decades ago, such as the A36 Salisbury bypass and the A350 Westbury eastern bypass, could be revived.

The M4 to Dorset Coast Connectivity Study was set up by the Department for Transport and National Highways in January 2022 to examine ideas for a fast new route across the region. The study is expected to produce initial recommendations soon.

Dr Chris Gillham, Winchester-based joint convenor of ACA, said: “Some communities might be tempted to welcome the return of ‘their’ bypass in the hope of reducing local traffic congestion, but this new generation of roads won’t be planned for their benefit. These will be fast highways designed to carry increasingly heavy container lorries from the ports to the Midlands and beyond.

“Their other purpose will be to open up virgin countryside for a sprawl of car-dependent housing estates and vast warehouses operating round the clock as regional distribution centres for the world’s freight networks.”

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The campaigners estimate building the roads planned by Wiltshire Council between the M4 and the A36 would cost around £400m. Consultants have said that dualling the rest of the A350 through Dorset to Poole would cost another billion.

Lynne Fish, a retired nurse and CPRE activist in North Dorset, said the government’s emphasis on road transport threatens health as well as the environment: “Investing in trains, trams, buses, cycling and walking would be a more appropriate response to the converging crises of climate disaster, mass extinctions and the epidemic of ill-health caused by traffic pollution and sedentary lifestyles.”

Hampshire County Council was not part of the local authority group calling for the study.  It opposes expansion of ‘its’ section of the A36 Trunk road but has invested heavily in increasing the capacity of its preferred north-south link, notably the M3-A34 junction north of Winchester, and in junctions linked to developments off the M27.