WHEN Alistair Darling stood up in the Commons to announce a new wave of road building it was a disappointment - but not a surprise - to find out that yet again Dorset had lost out.

Yes, we will have the new Poole Bridge but that owes much more to local effort than central government initiative.

Sadly, there is still no likelihood that we will achieve a decent road link from the new bridge to the outside world.

Dorset is a fantastic place in which to live and work partly because we don't have huge motorways crossing our beautiful countryside.

On the other hand, we do need a decent road network to make sure that our businesses can easily access their customers in other parts of the UK and beyond.

Poole Harbour is a fine natural asset, much enhanced by improvements to the port area in recent years, and it seems quite wrong not to be making the most of it.

Congestion at its rival ferry terminal at Portsmouth presents Poole with an opportunity but without good access it will never achieve its potential.

Road access to the east is bad enough but the link to Bristol, the regional capital, is so appalling that it is often quicker to drive to Birmingham than along roads that in many places have improved little in 50 years.

The Daily Echo is proud to support local companies by sponsoring the DCCI as a patron.