A REVIEW of Weymouth’s controversial traffic system says it is working – although changes will be still be made following complaints.

Dorset County Council has carried out a second year review of the Weymouth Transport Package.

Council chiefs says certain objectives have been met including journey time, air quality and pedestrian safety improvements, but a number of amendments will be made to the scheme in response from residents.

Chief executive of Dorset County Council Debbie Ward acknowledged there were clear safety concerns in meetings last year with Park District residents Ken Whatley and Dave Burchill, and she agreed to review the issues.

It was announced in December that the council would act on changes, and work will be done soon on these.

It includes:

  • A yellow hatched box added to the junction of Queen Street and King Street, implemented in the spring
  • Signs revised for drivers to make access to seafront businesses easier to understand – signs will be erected by the start of the summer season
  • An increase in signs for pedestrians from the rail and bus stations to the seafront and bus stops, and to encourage use of the subway – signs will be erected by the start of the summer season
  • Traffic control and signal sequences at the Boot Hill/Asda junction being investigated and due to the closure of the fire station some physical changes in layout may now be possible

The county council will be carrying out a further road safety audit in July after which there may be further improvements.

County councillor Hilary Cox, Cabinet member for environment, said: “We now have two years worth of traffic data based on the original scheme and it seems to be working well in improving journey time reliability, but we appreciate that demands are continually changing.

“After listening to the communities concerned highways engineers will try to include ideas into the next amendments to the scheme where practicable. It is good that people took to time to consider how to improve this scheme.”

The objectives of the scheme which are yet to be achieved are:

  • To improve bus quality by reducing the average age of the bus fleet
  • To improve the bus/rail interchange