Hampshire has two finished designs for the Kings Worthy junction and no money for either. The M3 junction 9 ruling left it unfunded, three years on.

Hampshire County Council has two finished designs for the Cart and Horses junction at Kings Worthy. It has no money for either of them.

The county’s own scheme page, updated this month, records the position in one line: the junction “remains unfunded” (Hampshire County Council). That is three years after 886 people filled in a form about it, and more than two years after the decision that settled who would pay.

The junction is the staggered priority crossing where the B3047 meets the A33 at Kings Worthy, about two miles north of Winchester city centre. The B3047 runs east to Abbots Worthy and Martyr Worthy and south towards Abbots Barton and the city. The A33 runs north to Basingstoke and south to the M3.

What residents told the council

Hampshire ran an engagement exercise on the junction in 2023. The feedback form was open from 10 July to 17 September, and two events on 19 July and 5 September were attended by nearly 200 people. In total 886 responses came back through the form, plus 56 letters and emails and 12 comments on Facebook. Of those who said, 875 were individuals, one was a business or organisation and six were elected representatives. The council called that “a high level of interest” (Scheme Options and Engagement Report).

The answers were close to unanimous:

  • 93% wanted to see improvements to the junction
  • 90% did not feel safe using it
  • 83% said vehicles travel too fast through it
  • 9% found it easy to use as a driver. 87% disagreed that it was
  • 7% found it easy to cross on foot, and 4% found it easy to use as a cyclist

Six in ten respondents, 62%, said they avoided the junction because of those concerns, and 23% said they did so often. Asked to explain, 64% of the 546 people who commented said the right of way is confusing or inconsistent. Another 35% called it dangerous or an accident hotspot, and 25% raised high speeds or aggressive driving.

The council also tried something cheap while the engagement was running. It changed the give way signs at the end of London Road to stop signs and put up “new layout ahead” warning signs on the approach. Its own report is blunt about the result: responses submitted afterwards “suggested that there had not been substantial increase in feelings of safety when using the junction as a result of the changes”.

Bar chart of the 2023 Hampshire County Council engagement on the Cart and Horses junction: 93 per cent wanted improvements, 90 per cent did not feel safe, 83 per cent said vehicles travel too fast, 62 per cent avoid the junction, and only 9 per cent found it easy to use as a driver
How 886 respondents answered Hampshire County Council's 2023 engagement on the junction.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The two designs, and what they cost

The optioneering study in late 2022 narrowed a long list down to two.

Option 1 is two roundabouts with a toucan crossing, a signal-controlled crossing for people walking and cycling, on the southern A33 approach. Option 2 is a signalised junction with toucan crossings on both the A33 and the B3047 approaches. In both, the A33 approach from the south changes from one lane each way with a central reservation to a conventional single carriageway.

The council’s own strategic assessment put option 1 at about £5.4m and option 2 at about £3.9m, both at 2023 prices and neither including maintenance and operating costs. It expected option 2 to cost more to run over time.

The two designs do not win on the same grounds, and the assessment says so:

  • On safety, option 2 scored better. Signals “ensure more orderly flow of traffic” and give people a controlled place to cross.
  • On efficiency, option 1 scored better, with more free-flowing traffic and less delay.
  • On sustainability, option 1 scored negative: it has a larger footprint and would take more trees and grass verge. Option 2 scored positive, though it would add lighting near the South Downs National Park.

Residents preferred the roundabouts. 61% chose option 1 against 27% for option 2, mostly on traffic flow and delays. Those who picked option 2 said it was easier to understand and safer for people walking and cycling. Only 5% disliked both.

Why there is no money

The funding question was decided by the M3 junction 9 inquiry, not by Hampshire.

National Highways is rebuilding junction 9 at Winnall into a free-flowing interchange, and that scheme changes the A33 approach to the Cart and Horses. Hampshire argued through the examination that National Highways should either build the junction improvements as part of its scheme or pay towards them.

It was not alone. The Secretary of State’s decision letter records that the junction “was raised as a significant concern by a number of interested parties, including HCC, WCC and the SDNPA who all strongly considered that improvements to this junction should have been included” (Decision letter, 16 May 2024, paragraph 223). That is the county council, Winchester City Council and the South Downs National Park Authority, all on the same side.

National Highways argued the opposite. It said its scheme would cut peak flows, cut traffic on the B3047 and cut the number of turning movements, which “could lead to a reduction in potential collisions”. Adding the junction to the application would need “significant further design, assessment and consultation and require a revised DCO application”.

The examining authority sided with National Highways. It found the effect on the Cart and Horses would be “slightly negative or neutral, and not of sufficient significance to set a requirement of or expectation on the Applicant to amend or add to the Application”. The Secretary of State agreed, and granted consent on 16 May 2024.

One detail in the decision letter shows how narrow the dispute had become. By the close of the examination, National Highways and Hampshire had signed a side agreement and settled everything else between them. The Cart and Horses was the only item in their statement of common ground that was not agreed. The Secretary of State decided no changes to the order were needed anyway.

Hampshire’s position at the close was that the scheme “would have a detrimental impact on safety at the Cart and Horses Junction”. It lost that argument, and with it the funding.

The collision numbers the inspectors queried

The decision letter also contains a passage on road safety that is worth reading carefully, because it cuts both ways.

The examining authority found the collision data as presented “led to a certain amount of confusion and ambiguity”, and noted that the figures indicated “a prediction of increased collisions of all severities at junctions within the application boundary as a direct result of the Proposed Development”. National Highways explained that this is because the scheme adds new junction nodes, and more nodes mean more places for collisions to happen.

The Secretary of State accepted that explanation. He also accepted the examining authority’s wider finding that there is “a predicted improvement in road safety and a forecast reduction in collisions across the wider area”, and said close attention should be paid to safe design and safety audit as the detailed design is worked up. The overall scheme was judged medium value for money, with an adjusted benefit-cost ratio of 1.72.

What happens now

Hampshire says it “will look to work with the Local Planning Authority and National Highways to identify if other funding opportunities exist”. No timetable is attached to that, and no replacement funding source is named.

There is no live consultation on the junction. The 2023 feedback form closed on 17 September that year, and the council has not reopened it. The information pack and the full engagement report both remain published on the scheme page.

Meanwhile the junction 9 works themselves are changing the roads around the junction now. The M3 northbound entry slip road at junction 9 is closed until winter 2027, and Easton Lane westbound is down to one lane until late November.

What it means for you

If you drive, walk or cycle through the Cart and Horses, nothing about the layout is going to change in the near future. The stop signs and the warning signs installed in 2023 are the improvement, and the council’s own report says they did not make people feel much safer.

Three practical points:

  • The A33 approach from the south will change anyway, because National Highways is rebuilding junction 9. Both Hampshire designs depend on National Highways amending its proposals, so the county’s scheme cannot simply be built on top of the finished works.
  • Plan around the junction 9 works, not the Cart and Horses. The closures that will affect your journey this autumn are on the motorway junction and Easton Lane. Our Winchester roadworks and travel page tracks what is shut and when.
  • If you want the scheme funded, the decision sits with Hampshire County Council, which is the highway authority here. Its Highways, Engineering and Transport team takes enquiries on 0300 555 1388.

We will report it if a funding source is named. For now the honest summary is that Winchester has a junction 93% of respondents wanted fixed, two finished designs for fixing it, and a budget line that does not exist.

Sources