Newbury bypass

The Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road (A34) (Newbury Bypass), is a 9-mile (14 km) stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England. It is located to the west of the town and forms part of the A34 road. It opened in 1998.

Between January 1996 and April 1996 the clearance of approximately 360 acres (150 ha) of land including 120 acres (49 ha) of woodland, and the felling of nearly 10,000 mature trees to make way for the construction of the road, led to some of the largest anti-road protests in European history. Around 7,000 people demonstrated on the site of the bypass route in some way and over 800 arrests were made. The cost of policing the protest (known as 'Operation Prospect' and run jointly by Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary) had reached approximately £5 million by December 1996. An additional £30 million was spent on private security guards, security fencing, and security lighting while the works were in progress, of which only £7 million was budgeted for in the original contract.

The protest was known in some quarters as the "Third Battle of Newbury", a name which was also adopted by one of the main protest groups. The name was chosen in reference to the English Civil War battles that took place close to the town in 1643 and 1644.

The first Newbury bypass was built in 1963; however by the 1980s this proved insufficient to cope with the huge volume of traffic travelling through the Newbury area. In 1981 a new road to be built to the west of Newbury, mainly following the path of the disused Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway railway line, was proposed to bypass the town centre. This route was very controversial because it ran through three Sites of Special Scientific Interest — Snelsmore Common plus the Rivers Lambourn and Kennet; Penn Wood which was part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty); the English Heritage registered battlefield site of the first Battle of Newbury during the English Civil War in 1643; and The Chase, a National Trust nature reserve. It was also found that areas of the proposed bypass route were home to a rare snail, known as Desmoulin's whorl snail.

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