Last Saturday I had to attend a wedding up country and set off at 11am to start the 90-minute journey which if completed in this time would have given us a hour or so to catch up with relations.

Needless to say as with most well laid plans all did not go well.

From the top of Ridgeway to Dorchester football club roundabout on the A35 traffic was nose to tail but moving, then turning right towards Poole and Bournemouth on the A35 Dor-chester bypass (up to Kingston Maurward roundabout) it was solid traffic that stopped for two or three minutes every 50 yards or so.

It was during one of these stops I took the opportunity to really take in my surroundings which confirmed that the person who designed the tree planting scheme for the bypass was a genius.

The selection and varieties of the trees and their planting positions, now that they are well established, was a joy to see and must now give homes and protection to a myriad of animals and beasties. Sitting in the traffic that was slow moving both ways, I reflected on the time before the bypass was built and the plans that were put forward and the outcry from conservationists (many of whom did not live in the area) and their calls for the halt of destruction of the trees and hedgerows along the bypass route.

Maybe it was their protestations that forced the powers-that-be to complete the planting to the standard it is now?

There are now many hundreds maybe thousands of well-est-ablished trees, many more then were removed during construction.

I also imagined the total gridlock that would have affected Dorchester high street and the town itself if the bypass had not been constructed and the old route for the A35 was still in place.

To my mind progress has been made.

Ron Dansey

Chickerell Road

Weymouth