Easton Lane Link Road Inquiry - Trust Annual Report 1980
The Inquiry resumed in April, 1980 after an adjournment of six months, and was completed the following month. The Inspector's report and the Secretaries' of State decision have yet to be published.
At the Inquiry, the County Council claimed that the E.L.L. road is needed as additional access road capacity for relief to other overloaded roads, in particular, the southern routes into the City. The Trust questioned the effectiveness of such a plan, and submitted evidence to show that the road as proposed would not be relevant to Winchester's traffic problems. Furthermore, its construction now would prejudice many of the options yet to be considered in the Town Centre Plan — such as the controversial proposal to widen North Walls.
Since the Inquiry, the M3 decision clearly shows the premature nature of the E.L.L. proposals. Without improvement to the by-pass bottle-neck, St. Cross Road traffic is unlikely to divert to an improved Easton Lane, which would merely tend to divert south-bound long-distance traffic off the congested by-pass and into the City. During the adjournment of the Inquiry, the Trust received the fullest co-operation from the County Surveyor's Department in the provision of information and explanations, and, despite the differences in view on the proposals themselves, it became clear that our respective objectives were not dissimilar.