ROAD campaigners will start their battle against a huge road scheme near Winchester next week.

A new group, Winchester Together for the Planet, will speak at the pre-examination hearing of the £150m plans for a revamp of junction 9 of the M3 at Winnall.

As previously reported, National Highways plans to alter the junction, removing the need for traffic switching between the M3 and A34 to use the roundabout.

The M3 will be widened to a four-lane motorway with new connector roads and slips roads.

READ MORE HERE: Dumped car still in council car park

National Highways is seeking a development consent order and the examination is part of that process.

Winchester Together for the Planet, comprises WinACC, Winchester Friends of the Earth, XR Winchester, Environmental Alliance Project and the Climate and Ecology Bill Alliance (Zero Hour) have joined forces with 20’s Plenty to oppose the plans.

The examination will be held at the Wessex Hotel on Paternoster Row on Wednesday May 17 starting at 10am. The meeting will explain the process and the timetable of the Examination.

In a statement the group said they have concerns about the process: "We welcome the examiners’ choice of issues for examination but worry about the detail and emphasis. The biggest worry is that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the scheme may not be tested in a sufficiently rigorous way. The examiners, seem mostly concerned with how climate change will affect the scheme, rather than how far the scheme will accelerate global heating.

"There is nothing so far to suggest that the examiners:

• will probe the conclusion by National Highways that the carbon emissions of each scheme in its overall road programme is small compared with the UK’s total carbon emissions and is, therefore, negligible, even though the combined impact of all current road schemes will be considerable and could threaten the government’s net zero strategy.

Chris Gillham, for Winchester FoE, said:'This is a reason for doing nothing about emissions anywhere. Every straw matters when the camel’s back is close to breaking'.

• are concerned that government policy is inconsistent with local climate policy commitments.

SEE MORE: Support grows for sacked senior hospital consultant

Mike Nell, for XR Winchester and Zero Hour, said: 'It was good to hear that the District Council will object to this scheme because it clashes with its Climate Action Plan, but frustrating that the County Council has not the honesty to object on the same grounds'.

• will examine all practicable alternatives to the scheme. A High Court judgement ruled that the government’s case for the Stonehenge scheme failed because it failed to examine alternatives.

Phil Gagg, speaking for the WinACC Transport Group, said: 'So far there has been a complete failure to explore, sufficiently, alternative, more cost-effective, ways of reducing congestion (e.g. invest in better train services, electrify freight railways to the Midlands and the North)'.

• will examine how far the scheme will generate even more traffic and how it will increase traffic on the overloaded local road network.

Newly elected city councillor, Hannah Greenberg, lead of the “20’s Plenty for Hampshire” campaign, said: “The environmental, human health and mental distress impacts of existing heavy traffic on the communities of Twyford and Colden Common are already insufferable. This scheme will only lead to even greater levels of traffic on the B3335.”