Winchester and the M3 - Trust Annual Report 1974
The fight against the M3 has continued unabated during the past year and the M3 Joint Action Group drew up the following fourteen points to leave with the Minister of Planning and Local Government in July. In addition there was a large scale map showing the impact of the ring road on the City of Winchester.
Originally planned in 1963 the ring road was never intended to be the access road of a motorway.
According to RCU figures it will be at full capacity as soon as it is completed in 1984.
It requires the destruction of 187 houses, valued at approx. £11m. plus cost of replacement housing, plus hidden costs, plus environmental damage.
It places historic Winchester between the M-way and the ring road, the latter having traffic flows equal to the present by-pass.
The by-pass was built in the thirties to remove traffic from Winchester, it would be wrong in the seventies to direct traffic back through the city.
This leads us back to the justification for the M3 itself.
The M3 has a very low rate of return.
It has recently been announced that new roads will be constructed to lower standards.
The section from Compton to Southampton has been confirmed to the new standards. It would be folly to construct a three lane dual M-way from Popham to Compton when this will have less traffic than there will be from Compton to Southampton.
If the present by-pass is upgraded and made safe with split level interchanges, it will accommodate the predicted 1989 traffic flows at the new standards.
The cost would be greatly reduced and the economic return would be 48% instead of the 16% at 1970 figures.
Access to Winchester must be restricted and new solutions sought to traffic congestion, e.g. park and ride etc.
Port traffic from Southampton will generate 1000 lorries per day, less than one twentieth of the capacity of a dual two lane road.
M3 Inquiry was limited to engineering feasibility with little consideration of environmental and social problems.
The motorway proposal was only justified by Winchester's local traffic which will only be stimulated by the increased capacity.
We conclude that the correct solution is to adopt the recommendation contained in paragraph 9 above.