It has long been mooted that the solution to Lyndhurst's traffic problem is to build a bypass through the surrounding National Park forest land. In 1947 the Government's Baker Report accepted that a bypass might be necessary, and provision was made in the New Forest Act 1949 to construct roads through the forest with the consent of the Verderers. Public inquiries were held in 1975 and 1983. On both occasions the various routes proposed by the county council were opposed by the Verderers as being detrimental to the environment. The Verderers stated that they would not oppose a less harmful route.