PEOPLE who navigate the notorious Canford Bottom roundabout on a daily basis have been meeting the engineers who hope to make their journeys easier. Residents in Colehill and Ferndown have the chance to look over final plans for the £5.7million project this week – and tell project managers from the Highways Agency what they think face-to-face.

Work to ease delays around the A31 junction starts in September and should be finished by next June.

The new-look ‘hamburger’ junction, with 70 CCTV-monitored traffic lights, will give pedestrians and cyclists priority. Most people at the public exhibitions still see a flyover, budgeted at £120million, as the long term solution.

Brian Holloway, of Canford Bottom, said: “We’ve had problems for years. It’s so bad at certain times of the day.

“To try and get out onto the roundabout from where we live is a nightmare.

“These changes will give us a chance at least, I think. I fear it’s very much a temporary solution.

“If it lasts for five years I will be surprised.

“Everyone wants a flyover, but they say that’s too expensive.

“But if we tapped into EU funds we could have nice new routes, like you see in Spain and Portugal.”

A Wimborne Road West resident, who did not want to be named, said: “They tried to make it better a while back by re-painting the lanes.

“I’m not sure whether it helped to be honest – people don’t pay attention to them. This might work if drivers stay in the right lane, but it’s not ideal.”

The Highways Agency say the scheme will bring relief for 10 years, and that new ‘spiral lane’ markings will stop lane switches and reduce crashes.

Feedback from 422 people who responded to a public consultation show they don’t think the measures will go far enough, will just push the problem onto the Merley roundabout and that multiple traffic lights will cause more hold ups.

Visit the website highways.gov. uk/a31canfordbottom A public meeting at The Barrington Centre, in Ferndown, starts at 7pm on Friday July 29.

• Less than six rabbits were found on the roundabout and had to be destroyed, the Highways Agency say.

The rabbit colony was removed as part of preparation works earlier this year, despite a passionate campaign to save the bunnies.