Michael Wheller states that Weymouth Civic Soc-iety is wrong in supporting the building of a relief/link road around Wyke Regis (Have Your Say, June 26).

Could it be that the Civic Society lives in the real world, where roads are still the main transport arteries, essential to our way of life in this the 21st century?

He peddles the same old arguments that we hear every time a new road is proposed. It will spoil the view. Ruin a conservation area. Scare away the birds.

Did building the Weymouth Way alongside Radipole Lake devastate it as a haven for wild birds? No.

Ruin it as a great place to visit? No. Turn the resident swan population into nervous wrecks? No.

Is he aware that the Bovington and Lulworth military training areas contain a greater variety of flora and fauna than any of our National Parks? If 40-ton Challenger tanks and constant shelling cannot shift the wildlife why would a strip of tarmac?

The population of Portland equates with that of Dorchester. Portland has one of the world’s largest man-made harbours, vastly under-utilised since the Royal Navy vacated it.

The huge potential of the area to create employment opportunities will be stifled without an improved road link. The chance to keep the next generation of job seekers here will be lost.

Do we want to be another Eastbourne, fit only for people like me, the retired?

He also says there is no money to build the link. Having realised the error of a moratorium on road building, central government will supply the funds for infrastructure projects if a solid case is presented.

Lastly, he says a planning application that could prevent the link ever being built is “a shot in the arm for the residents of Wyke”.

Is he speaking for the many hundreds of residents residing along Portland Road and the many roads leading into it? I doubt it.

Our forebears built much needed wartime airfields during desperate times to help preserve our freedom.

These are desperate times for millions. We need a modern infrastructure to ensure our future prosperity.

When “Beam me up Scottie” becomes reality and roads become obsolete, they can vanish back into the landscape as most of those wartime airfields have.

Rodney Best Doncaster Road Weymouth