HIGHWAYS engineers have promised Froxfield villagers that work on Stoner Hill, which was closed after a major landslide seven weeks ago, will be given the highest priority. They were answering the concerns of many people living in the area who feared their vital link to Petersfield would be closed permanently. But, engineers said it would take six months to reopen the road and cost upwards of £1m, which would have to be taken from planned funding for other road schemes. And engineers would be at the mercy of English Nature, who would have to approve their repair plans, because of Stoner Hill's environmental importance as a conservation site, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty They made their pledges at a public meeting in St Peter's Church at High Cross on Friday night, attended by around 350 anxious residents and business people whose lives have been thrown into chaos since the C18 was closed at the end of March. The meeting was chaired by East Hampshire MP Michael Mates, who told villagers: 'I groaned when I heard of the possibility of an environmental assessment, but I do assure you that I and everyone at Hampshire County Council are going to make sure we are not held up by the environmental impact reports." He added: "The environmental consequences of leaving the road closed would be worse." He said some villagers had gained the impression that "nothing was being done" to reopen the road and the aim of the public meeting was to inform members of the public about repair work. It opened with a plea from Janice Butcher, chairman of Froxfield Parish Council, to engineers to open the road as soon as possible. "Prolonged closure of this road has very serious consequences for many in this area," she told Hampshire County Council officers and HCC's environment portfolio holder, Tim Knight. Speaking on behalf of those whose daily lives were affected, Admiral Sir Brian Brown warned: "It is clear our quality of life and the sustainability of the community will be eroded until Stoner Hill is reopened." He urged: "We would appreciate it if the repair of the road could be given the highest priority and could be completed as soon as possible. The end of October seems a long way away. Despite the environmental problems, we hope that ways will be found to make it happen sooner." The chief engineer for HCC, Mark Neave, said the environmental significance of the area "will have an impact on the way we are able to carry out the repair work". He said: "The woodland is almost unique and there are concerns about what we may or may not do. There is a duty on HCC to take reasonable steps to conserve and enhance the area. "The result is that any remedial works will be classified as potentially damaging operations and we will have to consult with English Nature." He warned that, if it was decided that a full environmental impact assessment was needed, that alone would take up to three months. But in an effort to save time, discussions were already taking place with English Nature, he promised, and early negotiations had been held with a nominated contractor who had a proven track record of good work. He said engineers planned to build a solid wall of steel into the hillside, using the same technique used for many harbour walls. Mr Neave said where the wall was visible, it would be clad in timber to give it a better appearance. There would also be improvements to the surface water drainage. He added that "we are looking at more frequent monitoring of the road, to make sure this does not happen again". There were stability concerns over a 100- metre stretch of Stoner Hill, said Mr Neave. He said the problems had been caused by the steepness of the slope, the fact that the road had been widened beyond what was considered safe, the disturbance of tree roots and the rainwater run-off. But the final straw was the recent unusually dry winter, followed by heavy rain in late March. Colin Taylor, HCC's chief highways engineer, pledged: "Hampshire County Council is working for a permanent solution as quickly as possible and working to get the road open before the winter months." The Stoner Hill crisis started with a crack in the road, which was followed, 48 hours later, by a section of the road disappearing down the hillside. Then another crack formed further along the road. "In my opinion, the county would have been negligent if it had not closed it." But it meant, said Mr Taylor, that a diversion had to be found for the 4,150 cars that use the road every day. Although the official diversion is along the lanes from Froxfield Green to the A272, said Mr Taylor, people with local knowledge were "rat running through country lanes." He said parish councillors had reported traffic travelling faster and verges on country lanes being damaged. When he said the county council had brought in a temporary 30 mph speed limit on the main road through Froxfield, he was greeted with cries of "what a waste of money."
