News Shorts and Other Busyness

Twyford Down Land ‘Given Away’ to Public School

Squall 11, Autumn 1995, pg. 7.

The site of the old A33 Winchester Bypass, replaced by the much disputed M3, is to be effectively given away to a top public school.

The one and a half mile stretch of land was restored and landscaped with public money but is now to be handed over to Winchester College for just a “few hundred pounds”.

Observers say it is a behind-the-scenes pay-back for the college putting up no opposition to the destruction of two Special Sites of Scientific Interest on Twyford Down, to make way for the M3.

Chris Corcoran, chairman of Twyford Parish Council said: “It is absolutely iniquitous and disgraceful. It sticks in my gullet something rotten.”

A DoT spokesman said that the deal was not unusually secret: “To describe them as secret is missing the point. If you are negotiating about something you don’t do that in public.”