I MUST comment on recent articles in support of the relief road proposal. I feel that the people of Weymouth and Portland are not being told the full story with respect to this road.

The Weymouth relief road is currently the most damaging new road under review at the moment. If it goes ahead, totally unacceptable environmental damage will be done to the Ridgeway (a 19-metre deep gash, reminiscent of Twyford Down), Southdown Ridge (16-metre gash), the Lorton Meadow Nature Reserve and the irreplaceable ancient woodland at Two Mile Coppice.

Both the Stern Report and the Eddington Report have concluded that road transport must pay its environmental costs and recognise that road building does not represent good value for money.

In fact the Prime Minister himself has said that it is environmentally irresponsible to attempt to build our way out of the problems we face on the roads; we must seek more environmentally friendly ways and we must utilise our existing transport networks more efficiently.

The recent windfall of £18million from the South West Regional Assembly, recently reported in the Echo, will go some way to addressing this need.

There is a nationwide uprising against road building in the light of recent research into accelerating global warming. There have been a very large number of local objections to the proposed road in addition to the objections forthcoming from across the country, which surely indicates the level of opposition to road building in general.

Motor transport in this country accounts for 21 per cent of UK carbon dioxide emissions - this is a figure we simply must reduce for the future of both Weymouth and the planet.

There is not, and never has been, any connection between the London Olympics candidate file and the completion of the Weymouth relief road. On the contrary, London 2012's objective is that all spectators to the games arrive by public transport, by cycle or by foot. Measures have been made available to ensure this happens.

There is considerable evidence to hand which shows emphatically that building new roads will lead to traffic induction. More traffic will be attracted to the area.

In Newbury, for instance, 10 years after the highly controversial Newbury by pass was built, traffic has increased in the area by 48 per cent in the last four years and has already exceeded levels forecast for 2010.

The Coutryside Agency commissioned a study that concluded that the road would increase road congestion in and around Weymouth and provide only very short-term relief.

It is clear that the Weymouth relief road will in fact not actually provide relief for many people and will devastate the lives of those thousands of people living anywhere near the new road.

As recent articles in the Echo have stated, there is still time to make your views felt to the chief planning officer at County Hall, Dorchester, DT1 1XJ.

I implore everyone who has a concern for the future of Weymouth and the planet to contact County Hall voicing their objections to this scheme.

David Moth, Springfield Road, Broadwey.