THE £5.7million plans for Canford Bottom roundabout are far from ideal, Highways Agency bosses have admitted.

Engineers are due to start work on the junction on the A31 in September, but local residents still aren’t convinced the changes will work.

Highways Agency representatives, quizzed at public exhibitions in Colehill and Ferndown last week, were frank about why the money is being spent now.

They have competed against similar projects across the country for funding, and the Treasury will transfer it somewhere else if the project is postponed.

Saving for a £120million flyover of a £115million underpass are simply not practical, they said.

Robert MacKenzie, from the Highways Agency, said: “We need to spend the money this year.

“Quite simply, it will use empty space in the middle of the roundabout for vehicles on the A31 to wait.

“It’s not going to stop queues. But it will no longer be a ‘free for all’ and give drivers time to think about exactly what they’re doing.”

The ‘hamburger junction’ should cut 13 minutes from the average rush hour journey, it has been claimed. Mr MacKenzie said: “Two or three months after it’s finished, by measuring journey times it should be possible to prove drivers are getting through safely with savings of a few seconds.

“It is not ideal, we know that, but it’s the best we can do.”

The new lights and clearer road markings will allow people to “weave and merge” without the fear of traffic coming off a side road, he added.

What the public had to say on the plans

VISITORS to a public exhibition at St Mary’s Church, Church Road, Ferndown, had mixed views on the project.

Iris Besant is retired and has lived in Ferndown for 19 years.

She said: “It is just manic at the moment. There are no markings so you do not know which lane to go in. They couldn’t make it any worse. I never walk around it. The bus has problems at times, coming down from Colehill.”

Barbara Polkinghorn, from Canford Bottom, in Colehill, is also retired. She thinks the present system works.

“It takes a bit of getting used to but the roads are marked all right if you know where you’re going and get into the correct lane.

“It’s always a problem in the height of the holiday season, but I don’t think the changes are going to make it quicker to get round because everybody has to stop.

“They’re just spending the money because if they don’t it will go back to the Treasury. They could do something really good if they saved.”

Her husband, John Polkinghorn, has lived in the area for 40 years.

He said: “It gets a bit tricky in the summer holidays so we stay at home. If they’re doing it because of the Olympics coming up then those cars are going to run into problems once they get into the other end of the Wimborne bypass and onto narrow country lanes all the way down to Dorchester.”

John Kingsnorth, from Ferndown, despairs of the Ham Lane entrance and exit onto the roundabout.

He said: “It’s like dicing with death. When this is done I think you’ll get enormous traffic jams and hold ups from all the lights. It’ll be safer, yes, but you’ll still have to sit waiting. We’ll have to wait until after this is finished and see if anything improves.”