Thank you to David Bullock for responding to my letter, which was printed in the Journal on Thursday January 4.  

I did not expect Mr Bullock to be the one to respond and give us detailed information on where and how to deal with 1.25 thousand metres of spoil from the Government’s proposed scheme.

Although not a supporter of the tunnel myself, I assume it will go ahead as it has the support of our local MP and the government.

However, Mr Bullock has failed to answer the main point of my letter.

On Salisbury Plain, the Government (MOD) own 150 square miles of beautiful land. 47 square miles of this is used for live firing and military use, and the rest is left to local farmers for grazing and arable use.

Presumably, Mr Bullock’s scheme will mean compensation to the landowners for disrupting their land for several years until it is ready to return to use.

Bearing in mind that a new Southern Range Road was recently constructed by the MOD along the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, the Ranges would be an ideal location to place the tunnel spoil.

The distance from the western portal of the tunnel to the boundary of the plain is approximately the same to both the Ranges and Winterbourne Stoke.

The main advantages to the Ranges option are that the main infrastructure i.e. A360 and the B3086 is already in place, and by using the government-owned land they would benefit by not paying mountainous sums of money in compensation to landowners.

I wonder what the National Audit Office thought of the scheme? Were they aware of all the options and the cost implications?

Ian West

Church Street,

Winterbourne Stoke

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