AFTER decades of campaigning, hopes for a Wylye Valley relief road were effectively dashed this week, when the scheme was dropped from a crucial plan for future development.

The route, which would have bypassed the traffic-choked villages of South Newton, Stoford and Steeple Langford, has been deleted from the Wiltshire and Swindon structure plan.

An independent panel appointed by the government, spent several months looking at all proposed developments in Wiltshire over the next 12 years.

While members agreed the road between Codford and Heytesbury should be improved, they recommend there should be no Wylye Valley bypass built until at least 2016.

Although the panel's decisions will now go before Wiltshire county council for consultation, the revised plan already has the backing of the government office for the south-west and the south-west regional assembly, and Wilton and Wylye councillor Ian West thinks it will be almost impossible to overturn.

"It seems like a fait accompli," he said.

"I doubt very much the relief road will come back into the plan.

"It is disappointing but not altogether unexpected. Ever since the proposed route for the road was changed and didn't bypass Stapleford, there have been problems, because the people there would have been left high and dry.

"This is what we feared might happen."

The news will come as a severe blow for many living in the Wylye Valley, which sees twice the average number of lorries thundering past every day and has been the scene of numerous fatal and serious injury accidents.

Dubbed "death valley" by campaigners since the late 1970s, the Wylye Valley has seen residents trying for years to get the relief road into planning policy, with petitions, posters campaigns, a roadside march in 2000 and pressure on councils and successive governments.

"We have tried everything," said Mr West. "The campaign has been going on for years and the road just gets busier. If they are not going to build a relief road, we are going to have to look at drastic alternatives.

"When whatever work they do on the A303 is finished, this could include closing the valley to through traffic, or at least restricting access for HGVs and making them use the A360 instead.

"There should also be more pedestrian crossings and speed enforcement measures to make the road safer and less tempting as a through route.

"Of course this might cause problems elsewhere but the people in the Wylye Valley have suffered long enough, and if they won't build the relief road, we'll need another solution."

The structure plan also guides the development of houses, shops and employment areas in the county.

The panel agreed with the original recommendation that a maximum of 8,000 new homes be built in Salisbury in the next 12 years, and growth in the city be at a slower pace than the urban areas of Kennet and Swindon.

There will now be a further round of consultation before the plan is officially adopted next year. The report will soon be available at council offices and libraries and at www.wiltshireandswindoneip.org.uk.