IT’S all very well for Charmian Spickernell to write about the iniquities of building new roads and, on the construction of vast motorways and trunk roads she may have a point, but since her article appeared in a local paper the matter needs examining from a local perspective and at this level the issue is rather different.
The road network in this part of Wiltshire has hardly changed since the days of the horse and buggy, evolving over the centuries as a network designed to connect towns and villages. 
Obviously some have been graded and widened but the layout is essentially the same and a centuries-old system is now expected to handle 21st century traffic. 
The result is a serious degradation of the quality of life in all the villages and communities that lie along these routes, exacerbated by traffic rat-running to avoid the hopelessness of the A303 at Stonehenge and the worsening congestion in places like Devizes and Westbury.
In rural areas such as this there is most definitely a need for relatively unobtrusive new country roads which bypass villages and towns so that their special qualities can be preserved. For example, why not build a simple relief road alongside the railway from Westbury to Lydeway? 
Shadowing the railway, its impact would be minimal and it would not only remove the vast majority of traffic from all these villages, it would also take much of the pressure off Devizes. 
In a small way it has been done with some success past the Ogbournes between Marlborough and Swindon and there must be plenty of other places where something similar could be made to work.
She touched on greater use of the railway and here I agree absolutely. Why, for example, is there still no station for Devizes at Lydeway or Littleton Pannell and why is the railway service to this part of Wiltshire so sparse anyway? 
The stopping service (and incidentally vastly cheaper service) on Great Western from this part of the county from London stops at Great Bedwyn and the only alternatives for the growing communities in and around Devizes are tedious commutes to Pewsey or Westbury. 
Surely with minimal cost this service could be run on to Westbury to connect with trains to Bristol and Southampton, and stops at Pewsey, Devizes and possibly Bratton could be brought into the mix. 
Devizes is one of the largest and most important towns in Wiltshire and it is high time it had its own station. People who live in the beautiful villages in this part of the county need protecting just as much as the prehistoric tenants at Stonehenge. Some joined up thinking is required.
LT COL PGF LORT-PHILLIPS
High Street
Market Lavington