THE fraught dispute over the Studley bypass scheme continued at a public inquiry last week as opposing factions cross-examined each other at Studley Village Hall.

The inquiry will decide whether 1993 route orders for an Alcester to Gorcott Hill bypass to the west of Studley should be revoked, possibly ending 30-year-old hopes for an A435 relief road.

Appearing for the pro-bypass camp were Warwickshire and Worcestershire County Councils, traffic consultants Halcrow Fox, Studley and Coughton Parish Councils and Studley Bypass Action Group.

Pitched against them were the Highways Agency, Redditch MP Jacqui Smith, Sambourne Parish Council, SERRAG bypass group and the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).

Warwickshire County Council's special projects manager Nick Bishton argued that a Halcrow Fox report in 2000 had identified the westerly bypass scheme as the optimum method of tackling traffic congestion, noise, and pollution along the A435.

Other options for a road to the east of the village were also investigated.

Mr Bishton said: "Revocation would thus act against the rationally justified hopes and expectations of the council and most of the local residents, as it would diminish the prospects of a solution to the well-established traffic problems."

Studley Parish Council said studies showed village pollution levels were the highest in the Stratford district.

It also argued that land had also been set aside for a road in the late '60s and '70s so anyone buying homes nearby should have been aware of any blight.

But Redditch MP Jacqui Smith said there was no prospect of a bypass being built, so the orders should be revoked "ending the blight on the homes of hundreds of Redditch families'.

She said: "The Highways Agency is right, the A435 is not a strategically important road. It is a road that should facilitate local journeys and not provide motorway traffic a high-speed alternative at the expense of local communities."

SERRAG, which represents residents in Sambourne and south and east Redditch, argued that a Warwickshire County Council steering group set up in 1999 to look at bypass options, was "biased in favour of the retention of the A435 Studley Bypass Orders".

Chairman Brian Danks said that residents in Sambourne and south-east Redditch had been kept in the dark about the threat to their homes.

Independent planning inspector Jim Coyne will publish his recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport in a few months' time.