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Firms lose out as A303 shuts
Page 14
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The closure of a main route into the South West has left local hauliers
wondering how they're going to cope. Guy Sheppard reports.
HAULIERS IN THE South West warn that a decision to close one of their main access routes for 15 weeks will cause turmoil for their businesses.
The Highways Agency is closing the A303 at Marsh on the border of Devon and Somerset from 5 September in a £2.9m scheme intended to shore up the road's embankments.
However, John Gregory. chief executive of Devon-based Gregory Distribution says that the decision highlights the folly of not dualling the road between Ilminster and Honiton.
"We're now going to have to go on the A358 from Ilminster to Taunton," he says. "There will be huge traffic jams. We are down to one arterial road to the South West and if anything happens to the M5, we're snookered."
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling last year opted to upgrade the A358 instead of the A303 which goes through the Blackdown Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Tony Bosworth argues that dualling the A303 would have meant creating a completely new road, ruining one of the most tranquil areas of southern England.
But Gregory says the closure decision will cause frustration for everyone: "Environmentalists are going to have their come-uppance because of the dreadful traffic and hopefully plenty of fumes in their faces," he declares. Although Gregory accepts that Darling's decision will not be reversed, Graham Bunning of Bonning's Transport in Ilminster, says it will have to be eventually. He also blames tourists for delays: -It's easier to work on Sundays than on Saturdays because there's so much holiday traffic on it," he adds. • The Highways Agency has announced plans to complete the dualling of the A46 between Widmerpool and Newark in the East Midlands. Stephen Kelly, regional head of policy for the VIA, says it began pressing for the 17-mile stretch to be upgraded 18 months ago."We welcome the extra capacity this will create," lie says.