LOCAL councillors are being urged to fight tooth and nail to improve the "insane" traffic situation in the Chawton Park Road/Whitedown Lane area of Alton.
They are asked vehemently to oppose any plan which would see 20-tonne refuse trucks using the Butts bridge route to access a proposed new materials recovery facility (MRF) on the A31 from the Basingstoke direction.
The appeal forms part of a hard-hitting "wish list", drawn up by members of the Chawton Park Road Action Group to counteract the increase in traffic associated with the future construction of 183 homes on the former Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital site.
Outraged by the failure of East Hampshire planners to press for road improvements to deal with traffic generated by the development, the campaigners have vowed to fight the decision.
They are calling for the immediate severing of Chawton Park Road as a through road to prevent rat-
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running, for improvement of the Northfield Lane link with the A31, and for traffic calming measures in neighbouring Beechwood Road.
Furthermore, they do not, on any account, want the installation of a dedicated cycle lane along Chawton Park Road which they point out would merely add to existing parking problems.
Top of the list, however, is the need for a Western by-pass to take traffic away from the already congested area of Chawton Park Road, Whitedown Lane and Butts bridge.
In addressing last week's meeting of Alton Town Council's planning and transportation committee, Action Group chairman, Tony Duignan, advocated a by-pass as "the only sensible and practical solution to the problem" - "and it needs to be faced now," he said.
He spoke also of the alarm felt by residents over the possibility of heavy refuse lorries using Whitedown Lane and The Butts to access the new recycling centre on the A31 and urged councillors to fight against it.
"It would be insane, given the current traffic problems," he said.
The group is pressing too for the installation of pedestrian crossings which they believe would serve to slow the traffic down.
"We want to see action taken to reduce the overall traffic flow in order to improve the quality of life for residents," stressed Mr Duignan whose fear is that as time goes by there is increasing potential for a serious accident.
In commenting on the Action Group 'wish list' committee chairman, Roger Fitzer, said that residents would be hard pressed to find a councillor who didn't share many of their concerns. However, he stressed, the Town Council's powers regarding road matters were "very limited".