VILLAGERS in Semington have given a guarded welcome to the news that work could start on a bypass around their homes in September.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has sanctioned the £10m road, but parish councillors say they have been let down too many times before with last-minute snags and pipedream start dates.

Wiltshire County Council's plans for the bypass received ministerial backing last week, with a September start-date for work pencilled in.

The road, most of which will be a dual carriageway, will take up to six million cars away from Semington and Berryfield.

Campaigners have worked for more than 50 years to achieve their dream of a bypass. Now if all goes to plan it could be open by September 2003.

Parish council chairman Robert Oglesby said he is treating the news with an air of scepticism.

He said: "I am not holding my breath. We want to see the work starting before believing it will happen. The government has promised the road three or four times before.

"They could have started this a long time ago. People living in the village have been given four to six start dates all of which went by without any action. It is like checking the post syndrome.

"There is such a need for it everyone knows there is. The bridge will eventually collapse.

"The actual completion is still a long way down the line but there is not a lot of road building going on at the moment so I suppose in that sense we are lucky."

The bypass will also make life easier for millions of motorists using the A350 south of Melksham every year.

Funding for the 4km road was approved by the Government Office for the south west in December 2000, but the scheme had to go through a public inquiry last July.

Now Mr Darling, who took over from disgraced minister Stephen Byers, has issued a Compulsory Purchase Order and Side Roads Order, which allows the scheme to proceed.

County councillor Fleur de Rhe-Philipe said: "This is very good news. The Semington-Melksham diversion will improve conditions for residents and be a great improvement in road safety.

"We have been seeking this improvement for many years, and are planning to get it opened as soon as possible."

A multi-million pound contract to construct the route was awarded to Alfred McAlpine Civil Engineering, with designs for a three-span bridge over Semington Brook and an aqueduct to carry the Kennet and Avon canal over the bypass. Ringway Parkman will oversee the project.

Work to divert the canal was started in January by county council contractors so building work did not clash with the lucrative boating season. The scheme will include roundabouts at either end of the bypass.