A NEW campaign group is planning a series of roadshows to convince local residents that the existing A3 should be kept open once the £150 million Hindhead tunnel is completed.

STOAT - "Save The Old A Three" - comprises residents and councillors from Grayshott and Hindhead who do not accept arguments from the Highways Agency and the National Trust that the road should be closed.

Although no dates or venues have been set, the roadshows are expected to take place later this month.

East Hampshire District councillor for Grayshott and local resident Ferris Cowper is the STOATS chairman.

"We feel that the current proposal from the Highways Agency favours the flora and fauna and the interests of the National Trust at the unfair and unreasonable environmental expense of the people who live here," he told The Herald.

Mr Cowper also insists that keeping the existing road open is a safer option as it could be used for emergency access should there be an accident in the tunnel.

In addition to planning the roadshows, STOAT has begun putting up posters advertising the campaign in local villages. The Highways Agency chief executive Tim Matthews has maintained throughout the ongoing debate that keeping the A3 open would put the whole project in danger.

It would have a serious effect on the economic viability of the scheme, and the environmental benefits, he has argued.

In a letter to local MP Virginia Bottomley, Mr Matthews said that it would be extremely difficult to restrict the existing A3 to just local traffic.

The Highways Agency estimates that up to a third of potential tunnel users would use the A3 instead if it stayed open. Paul Hoyland, contract manager of Balfour Beatty, recently appointed to the project, wrote to The Herald last week to allay local concerns.

He said that the company is currently working on information, which should be published in the next couple of months, to show that the road closure will not compromise safety.

A spokesman for the National Trust told The Herald this week that it had nothing more to add to the debate, but would be issuing a new statement on the tunnel scheme in the next few weeks.

Mr Cowper remains unconvinced. "All STOAT wants is that the benefits of the tunnel scheme are shared out fairly," he said.

"We don't want our villages, our businesses and our communities destroyed by giving all the benefit to the flora and fauna and leaving the rest of us to pick up the bill for the rest of our lives."

Draft orders for the tunnel will be published in summer 2003, and if required, a public inquiry would take place in 2004. Work is expected to start in 2005, with a completion date of 2009.