A MISTAKE over figures has led to more confusion about the Westbury bypass.

Rosemary Marx from the Campaign to Protect Rural England transport campaign group accused Wiltshire County Council of overspending on the budget for the scheme when government funding has not yet been agreed.

The council says her figures are based on wrong information but accepts responsibility for the error after giving out the wrong details at a meeting in December. It said there was only £1,510,441 budgeted until April 2005 when in fact there was an extra £200,000 available.

There was then a further £250,000 for the following year bringing the total amount spent by February this year to £1.96m. Thinking they had overspent by £200,000, Mrs Marx questioned whether there would enough money left for an environmental impact assessment but was assured the assessment was included in this year's budget of £380,000.

A spokesman for the council said: "(The CPRE) has got some of the figures wrong which is our fault because we gave out the wrong information when answering a previous question." He said it was impossible to say when council would hear if they would receive funding for the bypass but said the council remained confident their application would be successful.