I WRITE in response to the letter by Ms Dean on Tuesday 16th October, expressing concern that the ongoing improvement works to the A338 risk affecting our retail economy in Bournemouth and indeed the wider conurbation.

As the Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, I completely agree.

We should be very concerned about anything which impacts our economy, particular our town centre which relies heavily on visitors.

We have been monitoring works closely and, on the plus side, it appears that the vast majority of the congestion is southbound at peak times – before 9.30am.

After that, the traffic eases off considerably and as such should not put off visitors to the area. However, ANY increase in traffic is too much of an increase, and in Bournemouth we are using every source of ammunition available to us to press Dorset County Council to minimise the disruption as much as possible.

I fully support Cllr John Beesley, Leader of Bournemouth council, on this front.

To assure Ms Dean and others – I am certainly not in the habit of making excuses for Dorset County Council.

Whilst I am looking forward to the end result of the improvements, we have to make sure that the process does not unduly hurt our precious economy.

Accordingly, I feel it is time to ramp up the pressure on our colleagues in Dorset and work together to find solutions to make this situation right.

The status quo is simply not good enough.

COUNCILLOR PHILIP BROADHEAD

Bournemouth Borough Council,

Bournemouth Town Hall