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| The Parish Council Bypass Route Recommendation |
1. The recommendation of the full Parish Council is
that the route referred to in the 1983 Public Inquiry as Route
1 be adopted as the preferred PC Route for
a Lyndhurst Bypass.
This
route leaves the A337 north of the village near Foldsgate Inclosure,
skirts the Golf Course to meet the A35 near the sewage works,
crosses the heathland to the east of the cemetery, and then
crosses the Beaulieu Road near the sandpit, before crossing
the fields of Vernall’s Farm to join the A337 Lymington
Road south of Goose Green.
It
is illustrated on the map.
2. In recommending this route we are aware of all the
evidence that was put forward in the 1983 Inquiry
and the 1987 Private Bill. In particular, it should be remembered
that the village interests won the ecological arguments at
that time.
The ecology affected by the route has not changed
significantly since then, and the various old and new conservation
designations are blanket measures covering the whole New Forest.
They would allow a single carriageway unlit road to cross part
of the open Forest which is not of especially high ecological
value, compared, for example, to the Mark Ash Wood area.
Our
deliberations have been influenced by events since then, including
the Environmental Improvement scheme carried out in the High
Street, the inexorable growth in traffic over the years, and
the recent evidence of air pollution outside our Primary School
which has lead to an Air Quality Management Area being declared
by New Forest District Council due to high values of nitrogen
dioxide (NO2).
3. We propose that a major improvement should be made
to previous plans for this route in order to alleviate
problems regarding the separation of the open land to the east
of Bolton’s Bench from the rest of the Forest.
We propose
a cut and cover tunnel about 400 metres long, east of the cemetery,
where the land conveniently rises to allow smooth passage of
the road beneath.
The effect of this tunnel would be to maintain
the present valued relationship between the village and its
broader Forest setting, the extra expense being justified by
the position of Lyndhurst as the “capital” of the
New Forest National Park.
4. The people of Lyndhurst remain adamant that any new
route or resulting traffic management measures should not carve
up the village and its immediate environs, particularly Bolton's
Bench.
The inner routes that have been proposed are
similar to the 1983 Route 3 which the inspector’s report
... "rejected .. at once", as did the House of Lords
report of May 1987, for the damage it inflicted on the village.
5. We are proud of our village, its setting in the Forest and
its Victorian and Edwardian heritage.
Our church,
St Michael and All Angels, is referred to as a “masterpiece … the
interior is astonishing” and it “..sits bold on
a slope opposite an Edwardian hotel above the High Street,
a torrent of through-traffic desperate for relief” (England’s
Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins, Penguin Books,
2002).
We believe that the maintenance and enhancement of this
unique village, its social and physical relationship to the
surrounding Forest, and the need to improve the quality of
life for residents and visitors, outweighs the loss of a few
acres of open Forest.
6. We wholeheartedly support the concept of any “Forest Bypass” that
could be shown to adequately alleviate the traffic problems
of Lyndhurst itself.
We do not believe, however, that any such
proposal, alone and remote from Lyndhurst, can achieve the current
30% traffic reduction target set by the New Forest Transport
Strategy of Hampshire County Council.
7. In making the above statements we would mention that
we have consulted widely with all Parish Councils
with an interest in traffic movements within the Forest, as
well as researching the evidence from bypasses elsewhere.
This
PC Route was also approved unanimously at a meeting of the
Lyndhurst, Emery Down & Bank Residents Association on
19 July 2005 and the Parish Council
now wish to promote general support for the PC
Route. |
