A £9 million cash injection for Dorset's roads has been criticised as 'not enough' amid calls for better public transport provision.

The county will receive the Government handout in a bid to improve town centre access and invest in structural maintenance and bypasses, but the funding will not go towards a new relief road for Weymouth.

The windfall is part of a £5.5 billion package which will provide extra lanes on the M5 near Bristol and conversion of the A303 through Wiltshire and Somerset to dual carriageway. Plans could also involve widening the A358 from Ilminster to the M5 at Taunton, providing quicker access to and from Dorset.

The transport spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, Les Ames, said: "I am very much in favour of this proposal, as the roads to and from Weymouth are atrocious. It would be a very good start because improved access to the region is what we need to support tourism and industry.

"But £9 million is not enough for Dorset if we want to have a free-moving system linking us to the surrounding counties. The roads are incredibly bad and we need a lot more money sensibly spent in blackspots such as Bridport, Broadmayne and Martinstown.

"This sum will go some way to helping the situation, but at the moment we do not yet know where it will be spent."

Roger Turner, Dorset County Council's project manager for the relief road, said: "Unfortunately this funding will not change the situation for Weymouth, regarding the proposed relief road.

"This money will be spent on structural maintenance and minor improvements of existing roads."

Environmentalists called for the cash to be ploughed into public transport and to improve access for people living in rural areas.

The Dorset spokesman for Friends of the Earth, Matt Pullman, said: "We have a lot of catching up to do in this county in terms of public transport infrastructure. The level of bus support, particularly in rural areas, needs to be increased and there needs to be more integration between the various service providers.

"You can build as many roads as you like, it all leads to more traffic growth in the end.

"Look at Dorchester - it's 10 years since the bypass was built and yet traffic is at the same level.

"And Weymouth still does not have a public transport interchange."