IT provoked protest marches, legal threats and complaints that large amounts of public cash were being wasted.

The construction of the Richmond Hill underpass was hugely controversial the best part of four decades ago.

Today, the junction that once looked futuristic is covered in traffic cones as contractors work on a controversial scheme intended to improve it for cyclists.

But in the 1970s, the very idea of bulldozing a traditional roundabout in favour of a traffic underpass and subway proved enormously controversial.

The scheme was part of the building of the Wessex Way to bypass the town centre.

On the day work started in earnest, October 27, 1975, the Daily Echo’s headline was: “Big demo against underpass”.

The story said: “Hundreds of ratepayers converged on Bournemouth’s Richmond Hill roundabout today to protest against Dorset County Council’s £186,357 underpass scheme, work on which was due to start today.”

The protesters included residents’ and ratepayers’ associations, Friends of the Earth and Bournemouth and District Civic Society.

They occupied the roundabout at 7.30am, bearing placards with slogans including “Hospital not underpass” and “In loving memory of Bournemouth killed by Dorset”.

That slogan referred to a dispute between Bournemouth’s district council – which opposed the scheme – and the highways department of Dorset County Council, which was responsible for the plans.

The protesters, including nearly a dozen councillors, marched under police escort to the Town Hall, where they called for an emergency meeting of Bournemouth council to seek an injunction stopping the work.

Cllr Norman Day said: “When this was discussed by Bournemouth District Council, the scheme was overwhelmingly rejected.

“The county council have overruled the decision of the district council.

“The estimates for this scheme are £1million. If they get this money on loan, the ultimate cost will be around £4.5million. The government are asking us to cut back on expenditure and this is a scheme that can be cut out.”

Forty trees on the roundabout were to be bulldozed at the start of the work, to the anger of Bournemouth and District Civic Society’s Paul Munro Walker.

“A hundred years ago there were three million pine trees in Bournemouth; today there are one million trees of all kinds,” he said.

Even Bournemouth Chamber of Trade was against the project. Its general secretary, Jim Tyndall, said: “We don’t think it’s necessary. We are supporting our local councillors against the development. We feel that with the financial climate as such, this could easily be one of the things which could have been shelved.”

The debate was also fuel for a Get Bournemouth Out of Dorset campaign, whose ‘motivator’ Cllr Hary Mears said: “The public have not been properly informed. I am against the non-cooperation between Bournemouth and Dorchester on this matter.”

But Cllr Edward Rushtont, chairman of the county council’s transportation sub-committee, said delay was not in ratepayers’ interests, “The county council voted by an overwhelming vote that this should go ahead. I hope that people will let this work go on,” he said.

Despite the protests, work went ahead on the big engineering scheme.

On May 31, 1977, the Echo reported: “Work is moving towards the final stages on Bournemouth’s massive Richmond Hill underpass scheme – but it won’t be ready in time for the town’s peak summer traffic.”

Although a dry spell was ‘proving a boon to the engineers’ and ‘helping them to speed the process of gouging out the remaining hundreds of tonnes of earth before drainage work begins’.

Nonetheless, adverse weather conditions earlier meant the scheme would miss its scheduled completion date at the end of July and was unlikely to be finished before September.

Part of the scheme’s subway, however, was ready for use, relieving pressure on the area’s zebra crossings.

On October 11 that year, the Echo carried a front page headline: “Open at last! – but has it just moved the jams?”

“Motorists were giving their verdict today on the £1.6m Richmond Hill underpass … which opened just before 5.30pm last night without fuss or ceremony,” the story said.

“As drivers passed through the modern roadway where an immaculately-kept roundabout once stood, they gave warm approval for the new section of road. But there was disappointment that the traffic jams did not disappear immediately the underpass was opened, but just shifted to different positions.”

One motorist was quoted as saying: “They have simply moved the traffic jams a quarter of a mile down the road.”

Supt Alan Rose of Bournemouth Police said: “It’s obviously an improvement.

“In the long term this can only benefit commuters and holidaymakers in the town.”

Thirty-six years later, Bournemouth council is to spend £230,000 – including £100,000 of government grant – on another controversial scheme, intended to improve the roundabout’s accident record.

This time, the focus is indeed on the pushbike.