LOCAL MPs have have hit out at the "secrecy" surrounding the impending results of the lengthy public inquiry into the proposed A.3 Hindhead tunnel. The inquiry began a year ago next month to find a solution to the 30-year notorious bottle neck. The government planning inspector's report has already suffered a series of delays, and now there is outrage that local residents affected by the proposals will be the last to know its contents, as it is claimed it falls outside the new Freedom of Information Act which came into force last January. Instead, its contents will apparently remain a secret until transport secretary Alistair Darling and government ministers have made their final decision on the £200 million pound scheme. East Hampshire district councillor Ferris Cowper told The Herald that he was concerned that the scheme which had already been downgraded from national to regional importance "could get the chop", and accused the government of having a hidden agenda. Mr Cowper said that the inspector had told him that it was the first inquiry he had ever conducted where nobody had objected to the road in principle. And he claimed: "When the inquiry began we were verbally assured by the Highways Agency and by people on the inspector's staff that we would see this thing before it was signed off by the relevant government inspectors." "That is now not happening. How can it be fair or just for the people who could seriously be blighted by the decision are to be the last to find out what the decision is?" Mr Cowper said that attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act had been rebuffed because he was told it is not in the public interest. "How on earth can it not be in the public interest," said Mr Cowper who represents Grayshott on East Hampshire District Council. Mr Arbuthnot told The Herald: "I am very concerned that this is all being kept secret and brushed under the carpet. "It shouldn't be outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act and is a crucially important issue in terms of the economy of the whole of the South of England and the corridor down to Portsmouth and Southampton." Sam James, Liphook's Hampshire county councillor and deputy leader of East Hampshire District Council speaking personally said: "I cannot understand why the result of the inspector's inquiry cannot be made public. The government inspector will have come to a decision with regard to the tunnel and that decision should be made public." South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt said that he had tried several times to get the information about the inspector's report made public through the Freedom of Information Act but had failed. "I now intend to ask a parliamentary question which I am able to do to try to identify if such a report exists and find out precisely what the government intends to do. "I am concerned that we went all through a public inquiry for it to be buried in bureaucracy." A spokesman for the Highways Agency said that it could not comment on the progress of the report. He said:"It will be sent straight to government ministers who then make a decision - it is not in our hands and I have no idea when the report will be made public. The spokesman further added that it was understood that the inspector was still working on the report.
