IT IS indeed good news for surrounding villages and villagers, and for Dorset travellers in general, that the C13 is due to be re-opened soon, whilst awaiting other more far- reaching developments – but it is very difficult to see what has changed, since the original closure in April 2014, that would justify this re-opening.

If the DCC Highways Department considered that there was a danger of a car being ‘engulfed by slippage’ in April 2014, the same danger must exist now when little has changed – except for some small ‘mitigation ‘ measures. If the main de-stabilising factor for the banks was the passage of HGVs in April 2014, then the same must be true today. So, either the C13 will still be dangerous when re-opened or it was never dangerous at all.

Either way, DCC’s decision to re-open the C13 to all traffic ( as opposed to light traffic only) without any further substantial change to its condition, would seem to owe more to political expediency, and anxiety about its own reputational damage, than to any serious re-appraisal of the dangers of the C13 at Dinah’s Hollow. Or am I being unduly cynical?

Hugo Mieville,

Liberal Democrat

PPC North Dorset