If you want to know a whole story - look at both sides of a coin. And if you want to know more than what you're being told, listen to what other people are being told.

The A350 / Westbury Bypass enquiry is water under the bridge now - so this is purely academic interest - but I was told (and frankly doubted) by the traffic modellers that their work showed that there would be no significant change in traffic levels on the A350 once you got north of Semington. And yet today, Peter Dawson from Bath and North East Somerset was telling the residents of Bath that they had hoped to ban lorries from the A36 and send them up to the motorway via the Westbury Bypass and A350, but now that they bypass had been rejected their plans were in tatters and they would have to find another way.

So do I now know the whole story? No - I don't think I do - I don't understand how the heavy lorries could have been sent via the A350, and yet the A350 have no significant change in traffic levels. Is there a missing piece to this jigsaw, or was someone being less than honest in what they were having us believe?

As I say - just academic interest. But a tale to learn from.

You'll also learn a lot if you look at what a Train Operating Company tells its passengers ... and also look at what they tell their shareholders at the AGM

---

14th July - And (but known to me) writes:

The plan to close Bath as a through route between the A46 to the A36 for commercial vehicles was something that concerned me from when it was first mentioned many years ago. At one time I regularly drove between Bath and Warminster and saw the A36 as cluttered with lorries as the A350. However in recent years the number of lorries using the A36 has become less and less. I think that many drivers transferred to the A350 (by leaving the motorway at junction17 instead of 18) at the time the Chippenham bypass was opened making the route to Warminster an easier option than driving through Bath and then a couple of years ago there were two very long periods when the A36 was closed at Limpley Stoke for road works and I think the remaining drivers transferred to the A350 never to return to the A36.

I have not put this in your comment section of your Horse  [82][ac] Ä s Mouth (Permission given - Graham) because whenever I suggest this to local councillors and transport experts I am told that I am not correct and that at least 75% of commercial vehicles on the A350 from junction 17 to Warminster are local traffic in that they are delivering to the local area.

More recently you may have read that there have been moves by the Marlborough Area Board to close Marlborough to commercial through traffic although I think the main closure bids came from people living in the villages along A346 and A338. I noted that this has now been put forward to Wiltshire Council for consideration, even though I was told only months ago that the proposal would go nowhere. I understand that lorries joining the A346 at junction 16 of the M4 will now drive on to J13 and use the A34. I suspect many of these vehicles come to J16 via the A417 / A419 and so looking to the future I suspect that they will they find staying on the M5 to join the M4 to leave at J17 and use the A350 to the A303 a better option. Of course their return journey would be the reverse. Again I am told my guess assumption is not correct but I raised the query with a transport manager from outside the area recently and he supported my view but added drivers have their individual preferences routes, for stopping places and so one could not be sure. I guess only time will tell.

On to another subject and following the Government  [82][ac] Ä s recent request for details of laws that could be modified or even abandoned to improve daily life I wrote to Duncan Hames drawing his attention to the duplication of bus services running just minutes apart locally and in other parts of the country and suggested that the logic of the law was correct to bring about competition but now needs to be redrafted to ensure buses run over similar routes by competitors are equally spaced in time interval throughout the journey route to provide a better service to the public. Last Friday morning in Melksham there as a 234 an X34 and a few minutes later an X31 and 231 all following one another nose to tail. [See [here] - G]

(written 2010-07-06, updated 2010-07-16)

 Z300 - Politics and Religion
  [216] Cheap purchase - votes paid for with selfish promises - (2005-02-15)
  [257] Politics gets nasty. Must be an election coming up. - (2005-03-25)
  [280] Spotted - the local MP - (2005-04-15)
  [289] MP for Devizes, Wiltshire - (2005-04-23)
  [301] General Election day, UK - (2005-05-05)
  [313] Making bona fide international marriages more difficult - (2005-05-16)
  [326] UK Tax payment totals and where the money is spent - (2005-05-27)
  [335] Sad priorities - (2005-06-03)
  [377] A Strengthened City - (2005-07-14)
  [384] Managing conflict and disappointment - (2005-07-20)
  [415] Campaign Drift and efficiency. - (2005-08-15)
  [469] Yesterday was Kiss and Ride - (2005-10-19)
  [505] Would you steal ... petrol? ... a training course? - (2005-11-26)
  [539] rich and famous - (2005-12-23)
  [602] MP face to face - (2006-02-12)
  [607] On being British - (2006-02-14)
  [671] Both ends of the animal - (2006-04-05)
  [674] Wiltshire to get an extra MP - (2006-04-07)
  [682] Iran has enriched uranium ... - (2006-04-12)
  [696] Is than an uphill or downhill task? - (2006-04-23)
  [750] Almost everyone loses - (2006-06-07)
  [780] Separation and Integration - (2006-06-27)
  [875] Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones - (2006-09-22)
  [967] Realistic on line shoot'em up - (2006-12-05)
  [1003] Room at the Inn, Guy at the station - (2006-12-21)
  [1060] What a relief from the tax office. - (2007-02-01)
  [1109] False imprisonment - a contrast from the news - (2007-03-15)
  [1135] Government pressure on me to shut up after I make the papers - (2007-04-05)
  [1175] Local elections - choosing who to vote for - (2007-05-03)
  [1247] An afternoon at a public enquiry - (2007-06-27)
  [1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
  [1350] FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) Western Region - (2007-09-13)
  [1386] New software product for warmblooded programmers - (2007-10-10)
  [1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11)
  [1526] Carers at work - court case changes - (2008-02-01)
  [1573] Budget tax increases hit vehicle market - (2008-03-14)
  [1579] Rome, and the faith of Rome - (2008-03-17)
  [1729] Back from the future - (2008-07-30)
  [1769] July child ponders on August children - (2008-08-23)
  [1872] Barack Obama wins US Predidency - (2008-11-05)
  [1881] Wiltshire Council says - part 1 - (2008-11-13)
  [1882] Wiltshire Council says - part 2 - (2008-11-14)
  [1987] One Cheer for Local Democracy - Asda in Melksham - (2009-01-11)
  [2012] The Wiltshire Police - (2009-01-29)
  [2028] Things people say on the phone - (2009-02-06)
  [2075] Supporting Parkinsons and Trains - (2009-03-11)
  [2178] Melksham Candidates for Wiltshire Unitary Election - (2009-05-12)
  [2206] Spot the odd one out - (2009-05-29)
  [2257] Ramblings on church and state linkage in Melksham - (2009-06-25)
  [2270] Wiltshire - a chance to improve life for everybody - (2009-07-05)
  [2279] Understanding the new local government structure in Wiltshire - (2009-07-11)
  [2288] Wiltshire Community Area Partnerships - (2009-07-15)
  [2353] All change - Wiltshire Parliamentary - (2009-08-13)
  [2640] How is your tax pound spent? - (2010-02-18)
  [2689] Can my dog eat potatoes? Doggie Dietary Research, and political sleaze! - (2010-03-23)
  [2712] A more informed decision than ever before - (2010-04-08)
  [2740] Melksham Hustings at George Ward School - (2010-04-26)
  [2752] Voting day - UK General Election - (2010-05-06)
  [2757] Bodicea, Lincoln, and our new MP - (2010-05-09)
  [2792] Should Government compete with private industry? - (2010-06-03)
  [2824] A pint of Black Rat, and a lazy barman - (2010-06-25)
  [2864] Changing with weather and seasons - (2010-07-10)
  [2870] Old prices - what would the equivalent price have been in 1966? - (2010-07-14)
  [2948] Melksham shamefully makes the national headlines - (2010-09-07)
  [2971] Should the public sector compete with businesses? and other deep questions - (2010-09-26)
  [3051] Positively reforming the system - could it be done? - (2010-11-14)
  [3264] Alternative Vote (AV) - explaining and an example - (2011-04-25)
  [3313] What does our MP do on a Bank Holiday? - (2011-05-30)
  [3323] Is Melksham town centre dying? - (2011-06-11)
  [3325] The Olympic Torch, and Melksham House - (2011-06-14)
  [3438] Melksham to become a part of Trowbridge? - (2011-09-13)
  [3592] Are we one man, one vote? No, and we never have been. - (2012-01-26)
  [3676] Rising prices, changing habits and society - (2012-03-31)
  [3806] 2011 Census results - initial figures for Wiltshire. - (2012-07-17)
  [3845] Good cause giving - getting the charity beggars off the street - (2012-08-21)
  [3905] How should we choose our Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner? - (2012-10-27)
  [3921] On rememberance, on war, and on preventing the war cycle - (2012-11-11)
  [4079] Melksham Area - Unitary Council results, May 2013 - (2013-05-04)
  [4223] Democracy - alive and well with the beauty pagent starting up again - (2013-12-16)
  [4275] Eurpoean Elections, and other elections ahead. Some thoughts on campaigns and policies - (2014-05-08)
  [4286] Reaction in Radstock to new First bus prices - (2014-07-12)
  [4343] Politics and the railway the connects Wiltshire - (2014-12-06)
  [4354] Wiltshire Police - assuming someone is guilty just on the say-so of a member of the public? - (2014-12-16)
  [4476] Upcoming election - Chippenham Constituency - the major candidates compared - (2015-04-29)
  [4485] Misusing statistics? - the seedy side of election campaigning - (2015-05-04)
  [4489] Election results - what if we had a party list system? - (2015-05-08)
  [4548] Melksham - two small townships, or one big one? - (2015-10-22)
  [4597] Not standing as your local councillor - (2015-12-18)
  [4614] PC Plod - alive and scaremongering in Wiltshire? - (2016-01-04)
  [4625] Where does Wiltshire bus subsidy money come from? - (2016-01-19)
  [4720] Celebrating our diversity rather than discriminating for it - (2016-11-02)
  [4725] Writing Python 2 such that Python 3 is easy - (2016-11-06)
  [4729] The oldest part of Los Angeles - (2016-11-23)
  [4734] Thoughts on the new Blackmore Ward of Melksham Without Parish - (2017-02-22)
  [4735] Revisiting - should I stand for Melksham Without Parish Council in May? - (2017-02-24)

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