£40m for junction six? ‘Pigs would fly first!’

1:00pm Monday 14th December 2009

By David Connop Price

“PIGS would fly” before £40million is spent improving junction six of the M3, according to one of the council leaders quizzed over plans for Basingstoke and Deane.

The issue was raised at a special meeting where the two top men at the borough council met the public.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council leader Councillor Andrew Finney and chief executive Tony Curtis both attended separate sessions in Whitchurch and Basingstoke.

But the questioning was robust, with citizens – many of them from larger organisations – pressing the pair over house-building, the environment, supporting ethnic diversity, traffic congestion, closure of a council reception desk, roundabouts and council expenditure.

At the meeting in the Civic Offices in Basingstoke, Cllr Finney was asked how the borough could cope with further traffic congestion.

He said: “The likelihood of £40million for re-engineering junction six? Well I can’t see any pigs flying past the window.”

He said traffic problems in Basingstoke were nowhere near as bad as other places, such as Reading, but the authority is examining other options with road experts from Hampshire County Council and the Highways Agency.

Tony Fendall, of Old Basing Parish Council, warned building on sites near the source of rivers Loddon and Lyde would “completely destroy” one of the “most valuable conservation areas” in north Hampshire.

He asked if council factions were pushing development there in order to save Manydown to the west of Basingstoke.

Mr Curtis said the borough had been growing by about 800 homes a year, the majority of it to meet local population growth and changing demographic trends, and if that was to continue, space would have to be found somewhere.

Cllr Finney claimed the choice of housing sites was not being “promoted” by any factions.

He added: “Development is an emotive issue. It is one of the big adult conversations we are going to have to have.”

At the conclusion of the second meeting, which was in Basingstoke, Cllr Finney said it was essential residents had the opportunity to talk about issues and he put a positive gloss on the low numbers, saying many of those present represented the views of other people.