NEW aerial pictures show the extent of the congestion on the A338 due to council roadworks.

The nine month Bournemouth and Dorset County councils scheme to add an extra lane at Blackwater Junction began last week and has come under intense pressure due to public uproar over extensive queues and knock on delays on other roads.

The aerial pictures taken from a helicopter by Christchurch businessman Stephen Bath show the state of the queues on Thursday, while one southbound lane remained full coned off.

Bournemouth council announced that day that the cones would be removed on Saturday morning, and that both lanes will then remain open until September 30, when temporary steel barriers to be installed.

Dorset County Councillor Margaret Phipps, who has previously criticised the "abysmal planning" of the scheme, said removal of the cones would be only a temporary reprieve.

"We have asked about all the alternatives, highways engineers have dismissed them, there is another six week closure coming up and it is going to be very, very difficult," she said.

Cllr Phipps was among those at a meeting in Dorchester earlier this week where highways bosses and councillors discussed concerns about the scheme. Proposals raised by business leaders, MPs and residents were presented to officers, including more night working or creating a contraflow in the northbound lane.

"Every other option put forward they said they couldn't do. I am not a highways engineer, we are basically being told we are stuck with what we have got."

Cllr Phipps said she thought officers were expecting traffic to improve due to wider awareness of the scheme, with drivers seeking alternative routes, but added that this would increase congestion on other roads.

"All the other routes are full up anyway. The disruption has been huge, and will be huge again."

There has been speculation the scheme, for "improvements" at the junction, is partly intended to prepare the way for Bournemouth council's Wessex Fields new junction plan, which has yet to receive planning permission.

Campaign Group Friends of Riverside, which is opposed to the Wessex Fields plan, has expressed this concern.

Cllr Phipps said: "Wessex Fields will be coming up next. If they are going to have all that additional employment land there they will need an extra lane."