CONCERNED Verwood residents are marking out their battle lines over a controversial £1.9million road rebuild.

At a heated meeting held last week, more than 40 neighbours tore into plans to make unmade Springfield Road and Springfield Close into a public highway.

But the council believes it is vital to improve access to nearby schools.

One resident said: “I find it hard to stomach that such money should be spent on what appears to be an insignificant road at the expense of front line services.”

But organiser Cllr Spencer Flower said funding, set out in the three-year corporate capital programme, had already been signed off by cabinet.

“The country has money problems today, but we have a future tomorrow to think of,” he said.

“I promise to listen to the views of the community.”

Worries include increased traffic and noise, disruption to wildlife, frontage costs and land being below the water table.

A resident of 24 years feared “boy racers”, who already speed round corners.

"This will be the missing link between Harlees chip shop and Howe Lane – they'll have a perfect circuit,” he said.

One Springfield Close resident was for the works, saying: “We’re prisoners in our own homes. We can’t go out at night because the road’s unfit to walk on. You see children up to their ankles in mud or puddles – they’ve no alternative.”

Cllr Toni Coombs said emergency services needed a smooth route to access Emmanuel Church of England Middle School, Verwood First School and Pre-School’s combined 1,000 children.

The idea was proposed 40 years ago in the Verwood local plan and again in the East Dorset Local Plan 2002, to which one resident objected.

Andrew Brown, Dorset County Council team manager for local transport environments, said updating the drawings and submitting a planning application could take over a year.