RESIDENTS have been given the opportunity to voice their opinions on the proposed improvements to the A31 to councillors.

The plans set out by Highways England were released in June and Ringwood Town Council is holding a public forum to discuss the scheme at 7pm on July 26 in Ringwood Gateway Square.

The council’s planning committee put together a set of provisional views on the proposals, which look to widen the westbound A31 to three lanes between the junction for Ringwood town centre, the B3347 Mansfield Road and the B3081 Verwood Underpass.

The plans set out by Highways England include closing the West Street exit onto the A31.

Councillors are keen to get the views of residents before finalising their position as a council in response to Highways England and hope to see as many people at the forum as possible.

Ringwood Town Mayor, Cllr Tim Ward, said: “Councillors represent local people and really want to hear their views before making any final decisions on a project which will have a major impact on the town.”

Highways England’s proposals aim to reduce congestion and improve journey times on the A31 westbound between the Ringwood and Verwood junctions, improve safety along the road - particularly at the junction with West Street - and improve facilities for cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorised users on the footway alongside the A31 and in Ringwood town centre.

The scheme is estimated to cost between £12 and £13.5m.

The works are scheduled to begin in March 2020 and take 18 months to complete.

Highways England’s public consultation began on June 23 and concludes on August 4, with an announcement of the results of the consultation due in October this year.

The current views of councillors are that Ringwood Town Council:

1) approves of the A31 Improvement Scheme, to widen the westbound carriageway to 3 lanes, in order to reduce congestion for users of the A31, reduce congestion for local people, improve journey times and reduce pollution;

2) supports the proposed closure of West Street on safety grounds, with a caveat that there needs to be emergency access onto the A31 from the Market Place, with the operation of a barrier/smart card system;

3) proposes that the slip road at the petrol station be extended the full length to the Verwood turn-off and investigations be made into alternative solutions for entry/exit to the petrol station, possibly from the Verwood road;

4) requires that there be a robust implementation plan in place to minimise the impact on residents during the construction period, due to the effects of contraflows, overnight closures and diversion routes for its expected 18 months duration;

5) requires that specific noise abatement measures be implemented for residents along the route and for the Parish Church;

6) requires an assurance that traffic re-modelling takes into account the new Local Plan and future projections for traffic with the possible development of Sites P, Q and R, including volume of traffic at peak times;

7) requires that the re-modelling statistics be made available to the Town Council's own traffic consultants; and

8) requires Town Centre access improvements for pedestrians and cyclists and believes that it is the duty of Highways England to provide this. Ringwood is unique in that it has a trunk road through the town and improvements are needed to compensate for this and to help the community to prosper. In this respect, it would be necessary to work with Hampshire County Council and New Forest District Council.