The Weymouth Relief Road opened in March 2011.
You can find out more about our fight below.
Update October 2008
The outcome of the Public Inquiry into the making of Compulsory Purchase Orders was announced early this month.
The Secretary of State has confirmed the Orders and - sadly, after a long fight by local people and organisations including the Woodland Trust - construction of the road will shortly begin (subject to final confirmation of government funding).
We understand that there have been ongoing discussions between the Government Office South-East and Dorset County Council about the robustness of some aspects of the Business case, approval of which brings release of the provisional funding for the road. However, we envisage that these issues will be resolved and start of the works is imminent.
Once lost, ancient woodland is gone forever
A significant part of the ancient woodland will be lost to new road and we consider that the remainder will be degraded by the noise, light and air contamination generated by an adjacent road.
Our partnership with CPRE Dorset Branch and FoE in this matter has been helpful in spreading both workloads and costs.
Taking into account staff time, the costs of external consultants and legal advisers, the Trust alone has spent a six figure sum attempting to defend this precious ancient woodland.
We still do not consider the new road will prove to be the expected panacea to traffic issues in the locality, which makes it harder to accept defeat.
Public inquiry update
The Woodland Trust has been taking part in a Public Inquiry into the making of Compulsory Purchase Orders to acquire land for the proposed Weymouth Relief Road. The Inquiry was scheduled to run for three weeks from 6 November, the inspector hearing evidence from all interested parties.
The road, if approved, would have a significant impact on the environment, in particular the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the Lorton Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). This latter includes the Trust-owned Two Mile Coppice, which is the only ancient woodland remaining in the Weymouth and Portland area and was purchase with the financial contributions of many supporters in 1998.
Construction of the new road would result in the direct loss of nearly 10% of the wood but the indirect impacts would also bring degradation of the remaining area. This was admitted at the Inquiry by Dorset County Council, the promoter of the road.
The Inspector's recommendations to the Secretary of State will be made after the Inquiry closes and we do not anticipate the decision until June/July 2008.
Coalition opposes the road
The Trust has been working closely with Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) Dorset branch in a campaign to defeat the road proposals, sharing the costs of consultancy advice and a legal advocate to represent both organisations at the Inquiry. both organisations recognise that the transport corridor between Weymouth and Dorchester (A354) needs improving, but contend that this should not be at the expense of an important unspoilt green corridor through which the proposed 4.6 km road would pass. Much of the evidence focused on 'need' for the new road and 'alternative solutions'.
Government body opposes the road
Natural England - the government's own environmental advisers - also participated at the inquiry challenging the need for a new road.
Solutions
The existing A354 provides the direct road link between the two towns and suffers from some traffic delays mostly in the early morning and evening when the many Weymouth car commuters travel to and from work in Dorchester. The road has bottle-necks which cause delays the worst of which is the Littlemoor traffic lights.
Dorset County Councils solution is to build the relied road at a currently estimated cost of £80 million pounds even though it has been revealed in the inquiry that this would provide an average journey saving of just five and half minutes (this time saving is likely to be negated by delays close to either end of the new road arising from higher traffic levels using the route).
The County Council also claim that the new road is part of an Integrated Transport Strategy but were not able to reveal the full package at the Inquiry.
CPRE and the Woodland Trust argued at the Inquiry that existing public transport modes, trains on the railway line running parallel to the existing A354 between Dorchester and Weymouth, and bus services are considerably under utilised and that improved 'park and ride' car parking should be provided at either end of the corridor to encourage use of these as an alternative means of travel. Also the upgrading of the Littlemoor traffic lights and better traffic management measures along the route would considerably improve traffic flow. This set of alternative measures costing a fraction of the proposed new road would not damage nationally designated habitats.
Runs against Government transport policy
There is no specific government policy in support of new road building which should be a last resort when all alternative measures have been tried. It is all too easy to look at road building solutions without addressing the longer term problem, namely the ever increasing numbers of cars on UK roads and the reluctance to use public transport in the areas where it exists as an alternative.
Traffic congestion along this A354 corridor and the Weymouth area is no more than intermittent and certainly bears no comparison with hundreds of other locations across the UK suffering far worse traffic delays but where new roads are not proposed.
A mis-apprehension is that the road is needed for the Olympics in 2012 as Weymouth is the venue for the sailing competition.
The Olympic bid stated that the 15,000 spectators (Maximum) 12,600 (average) were expected on each of the 14 days sailing events to be held at Weymouth. These could be catered for by three measures:
- a temporary 1,000 car park and ride
- a reduction from 7,000 to 500 parking spaces in urban Weymouth and Portland
- expenditure to improve rail services between London Waterloo and Weymouth
These measures are consistent with London 2012's stated aim that every spectator will arrive at the Games by public transport.