Parish councillors in Wroughton, Wiltshire, may call for a judicial review unless Swindon Borough Council thinks again about plans for a road tunnel under the M4 motorway.
The tunnel will link Wichelstowe and Swindon with junction 16 on the motorway, but villagers claim that local roads in Wroughton, Wootton Bassett and The Lydriards areas will be unable to cope with the large volume of traffic this will generate.
Developer Taylor Woodrow drew up the tunnel scheme to improve road links to and from its 4,500 homes development at Wichelstowe Front Garden, and allow traffic into Swindon to avoid having to negotiate a roundabout over the M4 motorway.
However, opponents insist that an earlier scheme to route a southern relief road and build a bridge across the main railway line would give better protection to the outlying rural villages, and ease congestion in the Old Town and Kingshill areas of Swindon, and should be revived.
Cllr Ann Richards, chairwoman of Wroughton Parish Council, has said villagers had already received offers of support for re-routing the road from several borough councillors, but stressed: ‘Because of the severe traffic management problems and because no comprehensive alternatives have been discussed, we believe the issue must be revisited at Swindon Borough Council planning committee and a full council meeting.
‘If this is not done, Swindon faces the real possibility of a judicial review. ‘We are calling on the borough councillors, irrespective of political party, to demand that alternatives to the tunnel are properly debated and the concept of a relief road which will benefit Old Town, Kingshill and Wroughton is reinstated.’
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