CAMPAIGNERS against Bournemouth council’s Wessex Fields road scheme are urging residents who previously complained to submit new objections.

Last month the council withdrew its first application to build a new junction on the A338, which had amassed hundreds of objections, and submitted a revised proposal.

There are less than 100 comments on the new scheme, although residents still have until December 4 to register their concerns.

Wendy Sharp, chairman of Holdenhurst Village Parish Meeting, said she thought the borough was seeking to sidestep the opposition.

“I was left horrified and speechless when I saw the new application, I have always supported the council and I could not believe the had been so underhanded,” she said.

“There have been some changes but the concerns of ordinary men and women in the street have not been answered.

“It is not just people in Holdenhurst, everybody in north Bournemouth has to use Castle Lane and it is very clear from the council’s own report that it will see a vast increase in traffic.

“The road doesn’t have any wiggle room, one breakdown and you might as well not bother.”

She urged those who objected to the first application to reiterate their concerns on the second or, she said, “when fewer letters are received, the council will no doubt claim they have obviously answered everyone’s concerns, this is clearly untrue”.

In its covering letter the council says it resubmitted the scheme “to enable the information in the submitted documents to be consolidated and therefore easier for both the local planning authority and those wishing to make comments on the scheme to understand what is now being proposed”.

And Larry Austin, the borough service director running the project, said “significant progress” had been made to address the concerns raised both by statutory bodies including Natural England and the Wessex Water, and those of the local community.

He told the Echo: “A new planning application will streamline this feedback and allow a much clearer and accurate picture of what is now being proposed to be submitted.”

Residents who have commented on the new application have also expressed concern about the revised bid.

In one objection, Peter Wells of Beauchamps Gardens said: “I abhor the underhanded move to negate the overwhelming objections to the original application.

“This was obviously pre-planned as a way to lessen the original objections. This is local council at it’s worst.”

Also last month it was revealed that the borough had chosen planning consultancy firm Blueprint Planning to assess the scheme in the place of one of its planning officers.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood has written to the council “seeking clarification” on the justification for the move.