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Location: Weymouth (SY674822)
Status (ongoing/lost/saved) ongoing
What is the threat?
Proposed Weymouth Relief Road will
cut through part
of the wood
Who is threatening? Dorset County Council (DCC)
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 6th 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 AONB, the Lorton SSSI. The latter
includes the Trust owned Two Mile Coppice which is the only ancient
woodland remaining in the Weymouth and Portland area and was purchased
with the financial contributions of many locals supporters in1998.
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 remainder area. This was admitted at the Inquiry by Dorset County
Council, the promoter of the road.
Coalition opposes the road
The Trust has been working closely with CPRE Dorset 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 (the A354) needs improving, but contend that this should not
be the expense of an important unspoilt green corridor through which the
proposed 4.6 km road would pass. Much of the evidence presented 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 one
being the Littlemoor traffic lights.
Dorset County Council’s solution is to build the relief 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 that 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. Tony Blair acknowledged in 2005 that “we cannot simply build more
and more roads, particularly when the evidence suggests that traffic
quickly grows to fill any new capacity”. 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.
The ‘exceptional’ test required for road building within a AONB set out
in PPS7 and PPS13 has not been proven in the Inquiry but we are
concerned that despite our evidence on ‘alternatives’ and ‘need’,
construction of this environmentally damaging road in a marginal Labour
constituency might nevertheless still be approved.
The Inspector’s recommendations to the Secretary of State will be made
after the Inquiry closes and we do not anticipate the decision until
next year.
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Background
For over 6 years the Trust has been working hard
to defeat the construction of the proposed ‘ Weymouth Relief Road‘ that
passes through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and a Site
of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI). Both of these are national
designations intended to protect important areas of the countryside.
Part of the Woodland Trust owned Two Mile Coppice listed by Natural
England as
ancient woodland (land continually wooded since at least AD1600)
would be lost.
Following award of provisional government funding for the road in late
2003, Dorset County Council (DCC) submitted a formal planning
application in mid 2005. Woodland Trust, working closely with the
Dorset branch of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) and other
campaign groups then contacted over 1,200 Trust members in the locality
outlining our concerns about this scheme and inviting them to lobby DCC
direct
Over 1,000 objections to the planning application for the road were
subsequently received by DCC including ‘statutory’ objections from the
then Countryside Agency, and English Nature (subsequently combined
under the name of Natural England) and the Environment Agency. This
contradicted an earlier DCC assertion, that there was no significant
opposition to the road proposal!
The Countryside Agency objection, based around the questionable need for
the road and the damage that would occur to the AONB, caused DCC to
rethink part of the route where it is highly visible in the Ridgeway area.
In November 2006 the original planning application was withdrawn. This
was immediately replaced by a Revised Application showing some minor
amendments to the scheme in this part of the route.
A misapprehension is that the road is needed for the
Olympics, Weymouth being the venue of the sailing competition.
The Olympic bid stated that that the 15,000 spectators (maximum) 12,600
(average) were expected on each of the 14 days of 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, and 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.
Body responsible for final decision
Dorset County Council / Planning Inspectorate
Details on the wood
see
the Woodland Trust's dedicated website
Other groups involved in the campaign
Other useful info
The site is publicly accessible.
(top)
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Click on the images below for bigger
pictures
Two Mile Coppice is managed for the benefit of the local
community and for biodiversity
Part of the proposed road route
If the road is built we would say goodbye to this tree AND many others
Two Mile Coppice - autumn foliage |
