WARMINSTER
~ TRAFFIC AND THE ENVIRONMENT ~
A STUDY BY THE
WARMINSTER OUTER BY-PASS ASSOCIATION
1973
FOREWORD (1)
Heavy and increasing traffic encroaches on the peace of the countryside and damages the wellbeing of those towns which do not have by-passes to protect them. This is one of the major environmental issues we face in Britain today.
This environmental study admirably sets out the traffic problems and hazards which confront Warminster, and highlights the urgent need to alleviate them.
I am very pleased to associate myself with this valuable initiative by the Warminster By-Pass Association, and commend it to the careful attention of those who can best help in our endeavours to find a solution.
Perhaps the most hopeful indication that the remedy is not too remote can be found in the Minister’s letter quoted in the Study Report. I was much encouraged by his statement, and shall certainly continue to remind the appropriate authorities that a solution along those lines is the only satisfactory one for the problems of Warminster.
Dennis Walters, M.B.E., M.P., House of Commons. March 1973.
FOREWORD (2)
It is with pleasure that I commend to you the Environmental Report prepared by the Warminster Outer By-Pass Association. All those who now live in Warminster and indeed those who have lived here in the past will I hope agree that the Town has a very pleasant “country town” atmosphere. This atmosphere with all its individual characteristics must be maintained at all costs and everything must be done to see that ruin is not brought on the Town by our ever increasing traffic.
My Council is most anxious to give its full support to the Association in achieving its object of seeing that Warminster is provided with a By-Pass as soon as possible.
I trust that all those who read this Report will agree that the Association is doing a worthwhile job and deserves support and encouragement.
Eustace Middleton, Chairman, Warminster Urban District Council,
Portway House, Warminster. March 1973.
INTRODUCTION
Everyone who lives in or near Warminster must be seriously concerned about the subject of this study. To all of us it has been a relief and encouragement to recognise that in the last 12 to 18 months, public opinion throughout the country has swung round to the view that our towns and cities must be protected from the ever-growing threat of road traffic. This study of Warminster has been produced to press exactly that claim as strongly as possible on behalf of our town.
Life in Warminster is becoming more dangerous and more uncivilised every week. Compared even with last year, there is now more noise, more vibration, more danger, more fumes, more frustration, more nerve strain. It will be worse next year; still worse in 1975; worse again in 1976; and in four years time we shall look back on 1973 as a year of relative comfort and safety.
This Association is not opposed to change. It is idle to suppose that Warminster, or any other town of its age, would ever be able – even if it wanted to – to recapture the character of its early years, when it was safe to cross the road without looking, because you could always hear the horse (if there were one) 100 yards away.
We are not like Canute trying to resist the irresistible; nor are we like Don Quixote striving for outworn ideals. But we believe that towns are not made by roads, buildings and drains, or even plans of roads, buildings and drains, but by people; people who enjoy meeting each other in peaceful surroundings; who can go about their business or their shopping without constant threat to their ears, their health, and their lives; who can stop to gossip for as long as they want to; who have time to notice the history in the stonework of the old house opposite; to wonder at the remarkable hat which Mrs. Blundellsands is wearing today; to try to recall where it was they met that newcomer over there whose name they ought to remember but can’t.
We are certainly not trying to rid the town of all vehicles, though we fully agree with pedestrian precincts; but we do aim to see that Warminster shall continue to exist more or less intact as our town, a town which is our home, a town for our pleasure and enjoyment, a town where traffic is allowed, provided most of it is for our, or the town’s, convenience and service.
We make the point that decisions for 1980 must be taken, now, in 1973. We should of course be witnessing today the results of plans produced in 1966 or earlier. The disgraceful fact is that no firm plans for our traffic problem have yet been agreed. We go further, and we say that not only must decisions be taken now for 1980, but that plans must be put in hand without delay for 1990 and 2000, (less than 30 years ahead; and 1943 is not so very far back in the mists of antiquity, is it?). Or are we to be made to look silly again, like the foolish virgins, who couldn’t see beyond their pretty noses?
We believe it is not yet too late for urgent and effective action to be taken to avoid the worst of the crisis facing the town. An early decision now to clear the town of the through traffic is clearly our first priority. To achieve it, we need support from all interested and responsible people; and especially from those who are appointed to guide this country both locally and nationally. Our lives must cease to be governed by cars and lorries.
We ask you all to read what we have to say. What happens then is largely up to you.
WARMINSTER PAST
1. HISTORY
From at least the close of the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century, the economic life of Warminster and its substantial market were dependent on wool, cloth, corn and malting.
To promote this economy, a pattern of “main” roads was established by various Turnpike Trusts in the eighteenth century.
Roads from the five towns of Salisbury, Shaftesbury, Frome, Bath and Westbury all met in the centre of Warminster, carrying their horse-drawn carts, waggons and the occasional coach.
This pattern has survived, still serving virtually unchanged into 1973.
In 1826 William Cobbett summarised Warminster as “a very nice town, everything belonging to it is solid and good”. (Rural Rides, 1826).
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has recorded the many buildings of historical or architectural interest as he saw them in 1962. (Buildings of England – Wiltshire. 1963. Penguin Books).
The Official Town Guide (1971 edition) describes the town as retaining “the pleasing appearance of a country town and many stone buildings date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Old inns are a reminder of coaching days and other historically or architecturally notable buildings include the Minster Church of St. Denys, the Chapel of St. Lawrence and Lord Weymouth’s School.”
Warminster’s great market declined during the middle decades of the nineteenth century and the population fell until the second quarter of the present century, when three factors brought far-reaching results.
They were: first, the development of the motor vehicle; second, the growth of tourism; and third, the establishment of a major and permanent military base in the town.
WARMINSTER PRESENT
2. THE TOWN
Today Warminster is no longer a market town, nor is it a centre for commerce in wool, cloth and corn, though a little malting survives.
Instead, Warminster now prospers as a shopping centre with some light industry, a notable military depot, and a desirable and rapidly expanding residential town. The extension of the shopping area from East Street to the Obelisk and the present development of a shopping precinct behind the Three Horse Shoes Inn reflect the increasing demands of a population which has grown from 5,565 in 1938 to 14,000 in 1973.
Light industries, although on a modest scale, include several building firms, the manufacture of agricultural machinery, shoe components, furniture, gloves, electrical equipment, plastics, greeting cards, fruit import and export, and some malting.
By far the largest employer of labour, both service and civilian, is the Defence Department with the Directorate and School of Infantry; Training and Tactical Wings; Demonstration Battalion; and the Command Workshops for the maintenance and repair of all kinds of wheeled and tracked vehicles.
Residential development has been carried out by the Defence Department, the Urban District Council as the local housing authority, and by private building. This has proceeded at such a pace that the whole of the area designated for residential use in the 1966 County Planning Map has been taken up and even some of the areas marked for open spaces have been developed.
The rapid increase in house building, housing and population in recent years has brought demands for improved public amenities and facilities. These include a new Assembly Hall, now being built, much improved school facilities including an indoor swimming bath for use jointly with the town, and improvements to the Public Library, Post Office and Playing Fields.
In addition, a residential town with a high proportion of elderly people requires safe and quiet conditions for shopping. As local population grows, do does local traffic. The Urban District Council has met this problem by providing two large free car parks close to access to shops. This provision is now far better than most towns of comparable size.
Servicing of shops is in the traditional manner, from the front, as there is generally no back access. This frequently causes complete stoppage of traffic in those parts of the A36 which are also parts of the town’s main shopping thoroughfare.
3. THE APPROACHES AND STREETS – FIVE MAIN ROADS
It has already been shown that the five main roads servicing Warminster since the eighteenth century still serve the town virtually unaltered today. Any difference will be found not in the roads but in the traffic they carry today from far beyond the five neighbouring towns. From Cardiff, Bristol, Southampton, Bournemouth and Birmingham, industrial and commercial traffic flows unceasingly to and from shops, factories and docks, while from the Midlands, Wales and the North come holiday-makers to the South Coast and the South West. The opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, and the development of Southampton as a container port have inevitably added greatly to the problem, but the effects of both these factors have been surpassed by the phenomenal growth of the Mendip quarrying industry whose lorries, carrying vast quantities of stone, traverse the town ceaselessly on their way South and East. (See para 4.c and 6 for details).
All this – and Longleat too – on the Turnpike patterns of the eighteenth century!
Let us examine, in greater detail, the approaches to the town provided by these five roads, and their eventual meeting in the town centre.
a) The A36 from Bath
This approaches the town via farm fields until Church Street. This is described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “the best street of Warminster” with, on the left, the Minster Parish Church with its fine ancient yew tree, Lord Weymouth’s School of 1707 with its Wren doorway, the stately dignity of Byne House of 1755 and Teddington House of 1700. On the opposite side, stands the former St. Boniface Theological College (now part of Lord Weymouth’s School) and several houses with fine doorways of 1750-1800. This street has notable examples of a fine period of English architecture.
b) The A362 from Frome
This approaches Warminster through farmland and between the borders of Longleat Park and the historic landmark of the National Trust’s Cley Hill. It falls gently, with glorious views of Arn Hill and the Downs, into Victoria Road, a largely suburban residential development, and then into West Street and Vicarage Street – these contain several good houses and cottages though not all so proud as Church Street, except Wren House and 12 West Street. At this point the road is only 20 feet wide and pavements in places are as narrow as four feet.
Silver Street and George Street combine the A36 and the A362 into the beginnings of the town centre. Originally good domestic architecture, though now converted into small shops at ground level, the small scale intimate character is still evident, particularly in Silver Street, while George Street has the width and proportions to include a long terrace of brick houses which would do credit to any town.
c) The A350 from Westbury
From Upton Scudamore, the same farmland approach leads below Arn Hill to some fair-sized houses of this century and on to Portway. This is an attractive mixed development of old and new, including the entrance to a housing estate of which an old people’s flatlet scheme forms the focal point near the entrance, Woodmead House for the elderly, the Fire Station, and the splendid Portway House of the eighteenth century with its fine ironwork gates. This imposing house is now the Urban District Council Offices.
The road narrows considerably at its junction with George Street, where it is lined there with cottages and has a pavement width of only four feet.
Off the A350 is the Warminster Hospital where the road forks at the War Memorial into the Close, which allows one-way traffic going South and East to join the High Street.
The three main roads, A36, A362 and A350, are now joined in the High Street. Though narrow and rising up a hill, it is graced by the Chantry and a few other attractive fronts, mainly commercial (Woolworth’s is a “new” building especially designed because a standard design would not have been suitable). Adjoining buildings and those opposite are not individually noteworthy, but they create a general picture of good quality.
High Street widens here and is joined by the Close from Westbury. Almost opposite is the Chapel of St. Lawrence, with its grassed and planted forecourt and what might be a peaceful seat for the elderly if the traffic would permit it. This Chapel, with its fourteenth century tower, is unique because it does not belong to any ecclesiastical authority and its care is the responsibility of a body of townspeople known as the Feoffees of St. Lawrence.
There is no noticeable demarcation between High Street and the Market Place, but almost immediately after the junction comes the Town Hall corner turning into Weymouth Street and the Shaftesbury road.
d) The A350 from Shaftesbury
This approaches Warminster over Lords Hill and through the villages of Longbridge Deverill and Crockerton. At the top of a rise is a short length of suburban development, followed by the attractive front of the Bell and Crown Inn facing a small Pottery. It then runs downhill to the junction of Fore Street and the original village of Warminster Common.
The road widens uphill again to Christ Church at the top, the second fine church of Warminster. Here the road falls once more, past the Town Football Ground, the Pleasure Park with its lake, swimming pool, tennis courts and putting green, joining the A36 at the Town Hall.
e) The A36 from Salisbury
From the East the A36 comes from Southampton, Andover and Salisbury, through the Wylye Valley of fame and beauty, or across Salisbury Plain of unique character, to Heytesbury and to wind its way through the countryside to Boreham and the wide, residential, treed Boreham Road, until it meets the narrowness of East Street whence it opens into the Market Place.
f) The Five Become One
The Market Place is the very heart of Warminster. It is a wide street where the great corn markets were once held and the pavements could therefore be narrow then – they have remained narrow.
Each side is flanked by substantial three-storey buildings, nearly all stone-built including two former coaching inns – the Georgian Bath Arms, re-fronted in 1744, and the picturesque colonnaded Old Bell.
The Market Place has much architectural merit, not only because of the buildings already mentioned, but in the way they are grouped forming a street scene which is an entity. At the East end, the bulk of the Post Office, set as it is, overcomes any architectural shortcomings by its very siting as a visual closure to the street scene, which is thereby “defined” visually in spite of being joined at that point by Station Road and East Street.
To this definition, the very narrowness of East Street also makes a contribution.
4. THE TYPE OF TRAFFIC
a) Long distance heavy traffic
Vehicles of the heaviest types in use in this country travel between the ports and industrial areas of Bristol and South Wales, and the industrial areas of Portsmouth and Southampton and their Continental Ferry Terminal.
Heavy and wide loads passing through the town include ships’ boilers, car, caravan and aeroplane transporters, earth moving equipment, cranes, bulk liquid carriers, tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.
b) Local heavy traffic
All traffic from the following local industrial concerns in nearby towns must use Warminster for deliveries to the West, the South and the South-East.
i) From Westbury – .
Associated Portland Cement Works. .
Tesco Main Distribution Depot. .
The Civil Engineering Works of Holdoway and
The Farr Division of Bovis.
Nitrovit Animal Food Manufacturers.
ii) From Trowbridge –
Watney Mann. .
Unigate. .
Scott-Bowyers.
These concerns all operate fleets of the heaviest vehicles.
c) Mendip Stone Lorries
In July 1971, a census of lorries alone was conducted by the Association on roads A36 and A362 only. It showed that over 2,700 lorries passed along these roads every 24 hours, and that more than 900 of them were Mendip Stone lorries. Incidentally, these figures revealed a 14% increase over Wiltshire County Council figures taken 10 months earlier in 1970. Yet, when they were passed to the County Surveyor’s Department they were described as an insignificant increase.
(Unfortunately, since the formation of the Association, the County Surveyor’s Department at Trowbridge and the County Roads and Bridges Committee appear hitherto to have regarded it as no more than an irresponsible pressure group. Rightly or wrongly, the Association has come to consider that the County Authorities have in their planning given priority to the interests of the traffic rather than the town. This Association agrees that the traffic must be kept moving but it considers that where people’s homes are in the way of the traffic, it is the people’s homes, not the traffic, which must take precedence).
d) M4 Linkage
Since the completion of the M4 motorway about two years ago, a marked increase of heavy lorry traffic has been noted which uses the junction at Kington Langley to travel via the A350 through Warminster to the A303 and the West.
e) Longleat and Holiday Traffic
The development of Longleat in recent years has meant that the House, the Park, Shearwater, the Lion Reserve and the Wildlife Park have become tourist attractions known on a national and international scale. A few hours spent at Longleat vehicle parks in the tourist season will confirm this. At this season, the main approach to Longleat, the A362 along Victoria Road sometimes becomes choked to the point where no vehicle can move.
On one occasion the B.B.C. broadcast a Police warning to motorists who were making for Longleat to turn back because of traffic jams in Warminster.
South Coast attractions extending from Bournemouth and Poole to the West attract tourists and holiday-makers from the Midlands, Wales and the North to beaches and yachting areas, and the roads which many, if not most, choose are the A350 and the A36 through Warminster.
5. THE EFFECTS OF THIS TRAFFIC ON THE ENVIRONMENT
a) General Public Discomfort and Inconvenience.
It has already been shown that all traffic on the five class A roads described above meets in the very heart of the town.
Warminster is at the centre of heavy cross traffic, and in an attempt to divide and improve the flow of traffic in the Market Place, traffic lights have been installed at the Town Hall corner. Vehicles are directed into two West-East lanes between the Athenaeum and the traffic lights, and into South and West lanes between the Post Office and the lights.
Much of the value of this is, however, lost during parts of the busiest times of the day when vehicles including the very heaviest, park on double yellow lines in order to deliver to shops at these points.
About 90% of the whole of the West-East traffic through the town from the A36, A362 and A350 is therefore at certain vital periods, condensed into a single lane at this point. Even with two lanes, delay, irritation and frustration at this junction result in fast waves of impatient drivers in both directions, with increased noise of acceleration of “diesels” away from the lights or to “beat the red”. The stench of fumes is nauseating and the reverberation of noise between buildings becomes intolerable.
These waves of traffic leave an all too short period for pedestrians to cross, particularly the elderly, who are frightened by the seemingly thunderous attacks of vehicles if they walk slowly.
At busy shopping times, the narrow pavements of the Market Place and High Street are frightening and nerve-jarring when a row of lorries hurtles past, often six inches or even less away. Pedestrians have been grazed by protruding or loose tarpaulins or ropes or by driving mirrors on “stalks”.
These difficulties apply especially, and at all times, in East Street even when it is not blocked by unloading delivery vehicles. The pavements are only 48 inches wide at some points and the carriageway is only just wide enough to allow two heavy vehicles to pass each other.
Similar situations occur at the A36/A350 junction, at the corners of Sambourne Road/George Street, and of High Street/Portway/George Street. At the latter, it is quite common to see the rear wheels of heavy vehicles mounting the very narrow 50 inch wide pavements. Indeed, in quite normal traffic conditions it is impossible for very long vehicles to negotiate the High Street/Portway corner without mounting the pavement.
From the Obelisk to the far end of East Street, noise makes pavement conversation impossible, and pedestrians may be seen to wince at the roar of an accelerating lorry, or the high-pitched whistle of its brakes at the lights or the High Street crossing.
In this connection, Sir Colin Buchanan has said “When you cannot hold a conversation in the street you have gone beyond the limit of civilised living”. Warminster has now passed beyond that limit.
b) Residential and Commercial Effects
Owing to the constant traffic roar, residential floors of many shop premises and banks have been vacated, or their inhabitants have moved to back rooms if they have any – some have none.
Since Warminster is a convenient touring centre for Salisbury, Wilton, Stonehenge, Bath, Longleat, Stourhead, Shearwater and the very lovely South Western corner of Wiltshire, hotel accommodation of a high standard could add to the prosperity of the town. Hoteliers find it difficult, however, to let their front rooms which, by the nature of their buildings, are their best ones. Business at these hotels is accordingly restricted, they are less viable to the proprietor and less useful to the community.
Indoors, along the main traffic routes, normal conversation by telephone or face to face is difficult, and at times impossible without acoustic double glazing, owing to noise reverberating between the faces of buildings.
Shops find their customers distracted and their assistants have difficulty in hearing orders. Staffing becomes more difficult because assistants will not submit to the discomfort of working in such conditions.
Double glazing is less effective because shop doors must constantly open. This also admits the stench of diesel fumes. It is particularly unpleasant when food shops receive the squirting fumes across a narrow pavement. Old customers go elsewhere if they can. Everyone tries to avoid the traditional Saturday shopping day when traffic is at its worst, and trade dwindles.
c) Effects on Health and Public Services
The effects of pollution by noise have only comparatively recently been generally accepted as having a harmful effect on health. People who work and live in the traffic-plagued areas of Warminster are well aware of these effects.
Sleep is one of the first casualties. One family, whose bedrooms were in the front of a Market Place building, sought relief from Friday afternoons until Monday mornings by moving in the Summer to their touring caravan sited on a quiet farm field. Full relief only came when this gentleman’s profession made it necessary for him to move to another town, two-and-a-half years ago. It is significant that the spacious living premises concerned, in the middle of the Market Place, have been since then – and still are – entirely unoccupied.
An increased consumption of sleeping pills has been reported in the town. On enquiry this has been confirmed by doctors’ clinical impressions, and it is likely to be particularly above normal among patients living on the traffic routes.
One doctor has reported that, in conditions of heavy traffic on the A362, he is unable to listen to patients’ chests via his stethoscope. He has even had to remove patients from their homes to enable him to complete his examinations.
Yet another doctor who lives on the A362 was delayed for two hours owing to a traffic block when trying to reach a patient. In these circumstances, essential public services such as ambulances, fire engines and water service vehicles are liable to serious delays when called to an emergency.
In spite of traffic lights, even a September Saturday morning has caused a queue of vehicles six miles to the South of the town and two miles to the North.
The early morning, from 4.00 a.m. onwards, is a time when sleep is most important. Yet it is then that the heavy traffic (especially stone lorries) starts. At this time there are no active police, speed limits are completely disregarded and heavy vehicles travel through the town at 40 mph plus. The noise and impact are increased by 300 – 400% – to the total destruction of what should be quiet hours. A case is known where rate assessment has already been reduced in recognition of loss of amenity by traffic.
d) Damage to Property
Even expert opinion cannot easily determine what proportion of damage and deterioration of the fabric of buildings is due to one particular cause. Few will deny, however, that an important contributory cause is vibration due to noise and the impact of very heavy loads on uneven or broken road surfaces.
Noise is vibration, and the fabric of buildings suffers from constant vibration over a period of time. “Earthquake Construction” is not known in the United Kingdom, and is not normally necessary, nor were ordinary shops and houses built at a time when heavy traffic conditions of today could be foreseen.
The banging of vehicles weighing 32 – 40 tons over broken or worn road surfaces, or over indentations and service manhole covers is a sudden impact load of steam hammer intensity. Even when unloaded, loose tailboards and steel vehicle bodies crash and clatter at every dent in the surface of the road.
One three-storey building in the town centre has recently had its two top storeys entirely rebuilt in timber to cushion the vibration.
Others have had to be repaired where vulnerable elements such as parapets have not survived the shock treatment to which they have been subjected. Some premises along the traffic routes have had ceilings and floors and parapets repaired, and rendering has had to be renewed.
In one building, a cot left in one place was vibrated to a new position in the morning!
This Association has received letters of complaint about damage to property ascribed to heavy traffic. One owner of a large shop front premises has reported that the low wall which supports his main shop window has to be repaired every year. Moreover, since repairs to premises involving scaffolding impede the traffic of both pedestrians and vehicles, some repairs have had to be carried out at weekends, with the consequent overtime rates of pay and still further cost to the owner.
WARMINSTER FUTURE
6. THE GENERAL TRAFFIC INCREASE
A survey entitled “The Quarrying Industry in North Somerset” published in 1972 by the Somerset County Council reports that this industry has grown from an output of 2.4 million tons in 1948, to 10 million tons in 1970. It estimates that by the turn of the century, it will have risen to 55 million tons, a growth rate of 5 and a half times.
At this rate of increase, and starting from the Association’s census figures of stone lorries in para 4.c. above, it is expected that nearly 2,000 stone lorries alone will be travelling daily through Warminster by 1980.
Allowing an annual increase of 10% for the 1,800 other category lorries counted at 1971, they will then number over 4,000 daily making a grand total of over 6,000 lorries of all kinds trying daily to pass through the town on the A36 and the A362 only by 1980, i.e. in 7 years time; and it has been said that a decision even now could not produce a by-pass within 7 years. (See para 9.c. below).
This picture is made no less appalling by the prospect of even greater lorry sizes of up to 40 tons as a result of our entry into the Common Market. Even if increased carrying capacity might conceivably reduce the number of vehicles, nevertheless, noise, vibration and danger would be more than proportionately increased.
Debatable though statistics might be, it is beyond dispute that Warminster was not designed even for its present traffic and it certainly could not survive annual increases of the magnitude that the above forecasts suggest.
7. HALF A BY-PASS
The Town Map published by the Wiltshire County Council Planning Department in 1966 indicated a route of a possible by-pass to the South of the town. This has never materialised because it was said it could not be financed, and obviously the “Service Town” character of Warminster gave it neither the voice nor the power that big industry could have brought to bear.
In 1969, however, the County Roads & Bridges Committee appeared to have found funds with which to finance a proposed “Inner Relief Road”.
It was to be a brand new Ring Road, passing only some 150 yards from the main streets and the very centre of the town, crossing existing roads and gardens, and cutting across or skirting the town’s most valuable open spaces including the Lake Park, the Football Ground, the Cricket Ground, Nurseries, the Convent and a school’s playing fields. It would have ruined Warminster by putting both a physical and a psychological barrier between the parts of the town on either side of it; it would have been a dangerous hindrance and a menace to old people, to housewives shopping, and children on their way to and from school. It might have speeded the flow of through traffic but it would have seriously hampered traffic operating in the service of the town. A short-sighted, make-shift idea, it would have been no solution to the main traffic problem. Unacceptable to the townspeople and to the Urban District Council, it was emphatically rejected by the overwhelming weight of public opinion.
If, however, a two-way road of this kind, with a carriageway of 30 feet was considered to bring traffic relief to the centre of the town, would not such a width serve equally well in another site?
Traffic expertise might then have gone hand in hand with amenity preservation.
Such a two-way road would serve as “half a by-pass” on the line published by the County Planning Department in 1966.
Even if funds for the inner relief road came from the County Council rates and the unobtainable funds for the outer by-pass would have to come from Central Government sources, surely it is public money irrespective of its source and should be spent in the way which serves the public best.
A “half a by-pass” such as that described above would remove most of the destructive features in the traffic which now eat away the vital elements of living and working in this town. The stone lorries and the car transporters, the continental container lorries and the cement lorries all take the shortest route. This means the shortest in time, not in distance and this could be provided by the “half a by-pass”.
Warminster could then begin again to live and to provide an environment fit for human beings instead of powered juggernauts.
In this connection a recent announcement concerning Fordingbridge, Hampshire, is of interest. There, a new road, (forming part of the A338 Bournemouth-Salisbury) will provide a by-pass by means of a single 24 ft. wide carriageway, and will include a new 124 ft. long bridge over the Avon. (Western Gazette, 19.1.73).
8. WARMINSTER’S REQUIREMENTS
This Association feels that the present study of the A36 which was initiated by the Department of the Environment in 1972 should take into account the following factors:-
The people of Warminster cannot be expected to tolerate even today’s traffic burden, let alone that of tomorrow.
This town must not be seen as part of a main national artery.
The relief of traffic pollution in Warminster is a matter of urgency.
The environment cannot be quantified in mathematical terms. It is therefore not enough to consider only the economics of road construction, using the cold statistics of distance, time and accident rates at £’s per corpse. Living people must be considered as well as the dead.
Rates of economic return must take into account the environment quotient. Although this can only be broadly assessed, it must be applied to relevant calculations in terms of adding a cost percentage to projects which damage the environment, and deducting a cost percentage from factors which enhance the environment.
9. THE ALTERNATIVES SUGGESTED FOR CONSIDERATION
a) Interim Measures
In December 1972, a conference was held between representatives of the Warminster Urban District Council, the Department of the Environment and the Wiltshire County Council. The two latter authorities at this conference urged the Warminster U.D.C. and the townspeople to devise what were described as “interim measures”. (Bath & Wilts Evening Chronicle. 16.12.72).
The Association understands that no specific measures were referred to at this conference but some at least can be assumed because they had been suggested by the County Authority before.
Before referring to them in detail, the Association unequivocally recommends that the town should have nothing to do with “interim measures” at all UNLESS a guarantee of an agreed permanent solution is given at the same time.
The suggestion of “interim measures” alone has aroused anger and distrust throughout the town. It is seen as a means of procrastination; as an attempt to sweep the problem under the carpet.
The very phrase “interim measures” is regarded by many as bureaucratic jargon, and the advocacy of such temporary expedients by themselves has suggested to intelligent people in the town that those responsible are showing neither the wits nor the will to devise a proper solution, and are appearing callously indifferent to the town’s future and welfare.
Two of the most widely discussed “interim measures” are:
i) The construction of a “Southern distributor road” from the A362 in Victoria Road via Broadway, Fore Street and Wylye Road to the Boreham area.
This will be seen by many to be a modified version of the rejected and discredited Inner Relief Road. It would pass through successive residential areas and would merely transfer the traffic from a busy commercial route to a quiet residential route.
ii) The widening of East Street by the demolition of the North side.
Although the buildings in East Street are of no great architectural merit, demolition and rebuilding as an interim measure in the interests of traffic flow would be an expense difficult if not impossible to justify. Moreover, the widening of the street would enable and encourage all through traffic to travel even faster, with greater noise, danger and discomfort to local users.
By removing a bottle-neck in this one small stretch of road, traffic, particularly the stone lorries, at present seeking alternative routes would be encouraged to come through Warminster. Not only would the bottle-necks of Victoria Road, West Street, Vicarage Street, High Street and Portway corner gain no relief; they would become more choked and dangerous, and further “interim measures” would be necessary there.
b) An entirely new Bristol-Southampton Motorway or Trunk Road
This is to be welcomed but it will only be an acceptable answer to the problem if it also makes adequate provision for re-routing the existing and ever-growing Mendip stone traffic away from the town of Warminster.
c) A Southern By-Pass
This should follow approximately along the line indicated in the 1966 Town Map. At the December 1972 conference referred to above it was claimed that such a by-pass, if approved, and programmed and land purchased immediately, would take up to seven years to complete and would be very expensive.
Of course it would be expensive, and take a long time. But these are not decisive arguments for rejecting it. Exactly the same arguments were used 5 years ago by the same experts. If those responsible, from the Urban District Council through County Council to the Ministry do not face up to facts and their responsibilities now, the solution to an inescapable problem will take even longer and become far more expensive. By then, irreparable damage would be done.
Here and now in 1973, approval in principle should be given to a by-pass however distant its completion.
d) A Practical Plan
It must be accepted that no by-pass can be completed for several years; and that some alleviation of the problem will be necessary before then. “Interim measures” alone are no solution. A practical plan is required which will incorporate the beginning of the final answer, i.e. a by-pass, with simultaneous temporary arrangements to give immediate relief.
It is not for this Association to work out details. This is a task for professionals. It is however, logical to expect that priority should be given to those stretches of a by-pass (see para. 7, Half A By-pass, above) which can be incorporated into a system of temporary traffic relief pending completion of the whole scheme.
10. CONCLUSION
The proposed “interim measures” alone would mean adopting a temporary solution for an indefinite period. If this were to happen Warminster would never solve its problems.
Is it right to destroy substantial parts of the town for the benefit of through traffic, to which Warminster only represents an obstacle to be cleared as quickly as possible?
Is it right that while these vehicles become even larger, we should be expected to destroy our homes and work places to let them through?
The late Minister of the Environment, Mr. Peter Walker, said at a recent Commercial Motor Show:-
“The modern road system is designed to accommodate modern traffic. The narrow streets of towns and villages and winding country lanes were never built to stand up to such a battering and must be relieved of it.”
“In the unthinking rush of modern life, homes are made un-inhabitable and the streets mere arenas in which the human being struggles in vain against a swelling tide of traffic.”
“Ugliness should not be accepted as the price which must be paid for efficiency.”
There can be no town of comparable size in Wiltshire, and indeed few in the West of England, where Mr. Walker’s words apply more truly than they do to Warminster.
11. RECOMMENDATION
This Association recommends:-
a) that if Warminster is to survive as a town, the through traffic of both the A36 and the A362 must be removed from it by the only effective solution available, namely a Southern By-pass.
b) that a decision to this effect should be made as a matter of urgency and without further delay.
c) and that an immediate traffic system be devised establishing temporary arrangements which will incorporate the first stages of the construction of the final solution.
THE WARMINSTER OUTER BY-PASS ASSOCIATION
The Association was formed in June 1970. Its aims are:-
a) To exert pressure whenever appropriate to obtain an outer-bypass for Warminster at the earliest possible date.
b) To support the Warminster Urban District Council in the above object.
c) Generally to preserve the amenities of Warminster, making it a better place to live in, to shop in, and to work in.
The Association has now 3,420 members and has had the co-operation of the Urban District Council and of Mr. Dennis Walters, M.P.
Despite strong pressure, the Association has so far been denied the opportunity to send a deputation to see the appropriate Minister in the Department of the Environment. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary has however said, in referring to the proposed study of the question of an improved trunk road link between Southampton and Bristol, that “there is every prospect of sections of the A36 being improved in advance of the complete route, and if the study report demonstrates that there is both an economic and environmental case for the early construction of a by-pass of Warminster, a Warminster by-pass could be one such section”. (Letter from Mr. Keith Speed to Mr. Dennis Walters dated 12 May 1972).
The Consultant Engineers appointed to carry out the review of the A36 are Messrs. Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and Partners, 5 Winsley St., London, W1, and a copy of this study is being sent to them.
Copies are also being sent to the Minister for Local Government and Development in the Department of the Environment; to the County Council; the Urban District Council; Mr. Dennis Walters; neighbouring local authorities; the B.B.C. and the I.B.A., and to the local and national press.
In addition, copies will be on sale to the public at a small charge to help meet the cost of publication.
The Association’s Committee at present consists of the following:-
Mr. D. Bailey
Mr. R. R. J. Digges
Mrs. K. Falk.
Mr. R. P. N. Ferris
Lt. Col. E. P. Gleadow.
Mr. F. Haywood.
Mr. M. Hickin
Mrs. B. G. Howgate
Mr. D. H. Mitchell (Secretary)
Mr. N. Stewart
Lt. Col. W. M. C. Wall
Mr. W. T. Watkins
Mr. E. B. Wood
Details of membership may be obtained from the Secretary of the Membership Committee, Dr. J. A. Falk, 12 West St., Warminster.
APPENDIX No.1
Date of Construction of Turnpike Roads to and from Warminster
(Victoria County History of Wiltshire Vol. IV.)
Warminster to Crockerton 1700 – 1750. A350
Warminster to Shaftesbury 1751 – 1775. A350
Warminster to Upton Scudamore 1700 – 1750. A350
Warminster to Westbury 1751 – 1775. A350
Warminster to Frome 1751 – 1775. A362
Warminster to Heytesbury 1700 – 1751. A36
Warminster to Salisbury 1751 – 1775. A36
Warminster to Thoulstone 1700 – 1750. A36
Warminster to Woolverton 1751 – 1775. A36
Warminster to Bath via Limpley Stoke 1800 – 1830. A36
Warminster to Imber and Gore Cross 1700 – 1750, Closed to public use.
APPENDIX No.2
Wiltshire Towns and Villages
Where by-passes or equivalent schemes are completed or now under construction: Amesbury, Lacock, Melksham, Malmesbury.
Where by-passes or equivalent schemes have received official approval:
Trowbridge (in conjunction with Frome (Som.), Bradford-on-Avon, Mere,
Wylye, Stratton St. Margaret.
Where completion of M4 Motorway has afforded some measure of relief:
Swindon, Chippenham, Calne, Marlborough, Wotton Bassett.
Where Inner Relief Road Schemes are proceeding: Salisbury.
Where no relief schemes have been agreed: Devizes, Warminster, Wilton, Westbury.