Context of my submission to the Open Floor Hearing today

There is a parish called Itchen Valley who have already spoken today: I represent the County Division of the same name, covering approx. 8000 households. 

The division covers the areas to the north, east and west of the junction, including the A33, A31, the A272 and reaches the A303 to the north. 

Reason for Open Floor Hearing statement

I have two roles- one as County Councillor, one as the Cabinet member for planning and Place at Winchester City Council

I am addressing you today as the County councillor representing residents in my county division.

To put this in context, I wrote a paper and submitted it  to the County Highways dept. as  early as 2009 describing the conflict between local traffic and the motorway traffic and its impact on residents in my division. The smooth running of this junction will be improved if the need to come off the M3 to reach the A34 is eliminated, but my understanding is that the capacity will be increased too. I will address this in my deputation today. 

I fully understand that National Highways has the role to get national traffic moving, and in particular freight. Local traffic is not in their KPI. But it is the impact of this plan on local traffic that I’d like to address first.

At the northern end of the red line, the NH plan meets the County Council managed highway at the staggered junction of the B3047 and the A33. Locally this is called the Cart and Horses junction. The joint arrangement creates problems! 

There have been many accidents at the junction, the most recent serious accident resulting in a fatality was in the autumn of 2022. 

At peak times, the junction is very busy with built up queues, at other times quiet, but it has been informally agreed between the county and national highways that this junction could be addressed within the plans for junction 9. 

I’d like this proposal to be explored in this inquiry and a specific outcome to be finalised so that changes at the Cart and Horses junction will be constructed as part of the scheme in front of us today. 

The proposal by NH to include a cycle and footway from Junction 9 to this junction is welcome, and frankly these are supposed to be part of ant NSIP proposal for highway improvements, but the plan drawings do not specify exactly how this section meets with the current A33 pavement. This also needs to be confirmed.

The Cart and Horses junction is the northern way out of Winchester avoiding junction 9, which means that as drivers get round the preferred diversions, it will be well used during the new M3 junction construction and early changes to the Cart and Horses junction will be necessary to address safety and city centre congestion.

Returning to M3 junction 9 itself. 

Almost all of the construction takes place within my division. Local roads travel under the A34. The contours of the roads- their height and speed affect residents right across my division. The sound of traffic rumbling is heard all over the western half of the division. The roads spread noise and pollution. It is almost a relief when the traffic stops moving.

Gantries inserted onto the M3 just north of Easton could be seen easily within the National Park. Views of Junction 9 are seen from several points in the division, the South Downs Way crosses it, and traffic endures long queues (of up to a kilometre) from the A31 onto Spitfire Link. Fridays, Sundays, the traffic is at a halt on local feeder roads to it.

And yet, apart from the drive through film, local public, traffic engineers at HCC or I have never seen a 3 D view of this new junction. I would like this to be made available so that we can judge the impact on the landscape and on our living environment. 

The non vehicle paths travel under the current junction onto bridleways and the NCN 23 in the national park. I’d like to know how these routes will be surfaced within the red line and how this will extend outside the red line. 

You will have heard from Mrs Rosewell , a local resident. Many of my residents are not on mains drainage, and/or have bore hole waters upplies. Her concerns are well made and I urge you to address these even though it is outside the red line.

Yesterday (16th May 2023) a dreadful accident occurred on the M3 between junctions 9 and 11.The motorway was closed for the day. It brought not only Winchester to a halt but the Worthys, Alresford, the city centre, Colden Common, Twyford and Wickham to a halt too. The motorway and A34 carries a lot of traffic- local roads cannot take that traffic in addition to the local traffic. If the capacity of the road network is greater, then this will increase the impact even more. 

This brings two questions:

1. If the capacity of this road is increased as a result of this DCO,  where will all this traffic go if there is a motorway closure? It brings enormous economic and personal cost when lorries cannot get to the ports, commuters and key workers cannot get to work, patients miss hospital appointments, ambulances have to reach victims of accidents, local buses cannot run on time. I’d like consideration to be given to improving the rail freight network rather than increasing the capacity of the road network. 
2. North of junction 9, there are not so many accidents, but they do occur. But accidents occur frequently between Bullington Cross on the A34 and Junction 13 of the M3. The speed limit is 70mph. In an earlier iteration of this plan, a consultant working for National Highways suggested that a 50mph limit would reduce accidents and the impact of noise.

On behalf of my residents. I’d like that to be an outcome of this application.  

Finally , and this has already been addressed by Phil Gang from WinACC and Chris Gilham, Friends of the Earth, but I’d like to add my comments too.

The carbon footprint of this proposal is ten times even that of the M25 junction with the A3. Why is this?  In light of our commitment to net zero by 2040, a target to which all the county councillors are committed cross party, how can this huge carbon load be acceptable without substantial mitigation?

A new junction and section of highway brings great opportunities for solar and wind energy generation, electric charging banks etc but none of this is currently included. These benefits could bring employment and new skills to our local community too. 

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