No, we don't need a new road to Portland, nor do we need an "arterial route" through Weymouth using the harbourside (What a depressing concept!) What Weymouth needs is fewer cars! What Britain (the whole world) needs is fewer cars.

Instead of demanding the destruction of even more of the countryside and the return to the filthy atmosphere we used to endure before lockdown, we should be demanding some decent public transport. Weymouth is a small town surrounded by packed residential areas where, for the most part, the only alternative to walking or cycling is to use a car; it doeesn't have to be like this! There should be transport links between Weymouth and all its suburbs (and retailers that sell the kind of stuff you can't carry home on a bus could make home deliveries). (Shopping without the hassle of finding a parking space and without worrying about the time is much more relaxing).As for business, the Dorchester Road by-pass, we were told, would bring prosperity to the town. Did it? I hadn't noticed. We are peripheral and no amount of road-building will change that.

I hoped that the Park & Ride would improve things, but it hasn't been used. I believe that that is because it isn't flagged up on the A354 until it's too late for drivers to consider it. If it was announced very prominently at the roundabout just after Dorchester (or even earlier), and several places after that, and if drivers were informed that parking in Weymouth is limited, that Park & Ride only costs - whatever, and that the last bus back to it goes at X hours, then the drivers and passengers would have time to weigh it up and discuss it. Now it's more like: "Oh they've got park and ride!""Where?" "Oh, just back there! Too late to turn off now..."

And, too late for this year, but a thought for perhaps next, it would be wonderful to have the occasional traffic-free day, when all transport was banned from the seafront, so nothing but people, a little music and street entertainment. Just a thought.

Lynne Crowe

Portland