I don' think the Western Road is needed now, or at any other time, for that matter. Your headline on July 18 precedes another one-sided report in which the regular 'congestion-busting' and 'minimal environmental impact' cliches are duly trotted out.
However, there is nothing 'congestion-busting' about the proposal: the congestion will simply be relocated to Ferrybridge. Also, there is no 'minimal environmental impact' option: if constructed, this road would have a colossal environmental impact.
So instead of endless calls for a road that will be as obsolete as it is destructive by the time it can eventually be built, local authorities and businesses should work together to promote some more imaginative, integrated and sustainable solutions to the competing issues of traffic congestion and economic development. For example, with much of the old Weymouth to Portland line track bed still in place, a new rail transport option could be truly 'congestion-busting' and with 'minimal environmental impact'. So too could waterborne transport and cycle route development.
Oh, and along the way, perhaps something might also be done about the embarrassing eyesore that is the Ferrybridge Inn these days.
Jeff Thomas
Wyke Regis
Weymouth
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