An overview of UK practice to date - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 242

petition of support. According to council research 50,000 vehicles a day
travel through Newbury, an estimated two thirds of which are “simply
passing through the town”, said Gilmour. Incidents of asthma are growing
among local people, while traffic delays of half-an-hour are common.
“People are reluctant to come into the town to shop, while some local
industries have moved away because they are unable to transport goods
effectively,” Gilmour continued. “It's all very well protesters taking the
moral high ground, but we have a moral duty to the welfare of people in
the town.”
Berkshire County Council also welcomed the announcement, which
follows years of uncertainty and two public inquiries to decide on the
western route. The council's environment committee has been lobbying
Mawhinney to back the scheme—arguing that the delay was making
transport planning very difficult. “The council's transport strategy
generally has been to move away from major roads but we feel this is one
of the exceptions”, said county environment officer Keith Reed.
He stressed that the council is concerned about potential environmental
damage from the scheme, which protesters say will destroy parts of four
SSSIs, partly cross a civil war battlefield and pass near to the 14th century
Grade 1 listed Donnington Castle and the Watermill Theatre at Bagnor.
“We will be pressing the DoT to carry out more archaeological studies,
and calling for the use of porous asphalt to cut down on traffic noise
levels”, said Reed. Environmental campaigners remain furious,
nonetheless. Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth said Mawhinney's
decision “makes a mockery of the 'great transport debate'. Local people
have been preparing to start local dialogue this month on alternatives to
the plan, but will now have their efforts thrown back in their face”. “This
road must be stopped at all costs. It is one of the most destructive schemes
in the national roads programme and will mobilise massive countrywide
opposition”, Juniper said.
Graham Wynne, RSPB conservation director, said the bypass will
destroy part of Snelsmore Common—home to a special community of
plants and animals including the rare nightjar. “This decision flies in the
face of the Government's stated commitment to a sustainable transport
policy. No-one denies that Newbury needs a solution to its traffic
problems, but it should not be regardless of the environmental cost.” The
European Commission is also considering legal action to stop the scheme,
which protesters say will break various environmental directives.
( Source: Planning Week July 1995.)
to the UK's Newbury Bypass, which generated direct action by aggrieved parties, who
sought to influence the project decision.
Some impacts may be more tradable in decision-making than others. Sippe (1994)
provides an illustration, for both socio-economic and biophysical categories, of
negotiable and non-negotiable impacts (Table 8.10). Sadler (1996) identifies such trade-
offs as the core of decision-making for sustainable development.