I would like to correct the misleading comments made about the Chideock Bypass on October 8 2020.

Your correspondent states that the bypass proposal was torpedoed by a few “influential observers, non residents too as I recall” ie. Chideock only has itself to blame for its current pollution and traffic stress. This ill informed claim recurs often in your pages.

The facts are that after a robust inquiry the Inspector, Mr John Moore, recommended that the road should be built. This was- The A35 Trunk Road (Chideock Morcombelake Bypass and Slip Roads) Order 199. File No. C.S.W.237/5/55/1.

The Secretary of State made the Statutory Instrument for the Order in 1996, No 1230, for Highways England and Wales, (Made 3rd May 1996: Came into Force 24th May 1996. Plan No. HA 10/1, ISWM/1011.) The bypass was to be built at a cost of 21 million pounds. By this time over 10 million had been spent on the investigations, inquiry and land purchase.

Following a change in national Government and the adoption of a new highways strategy, this Order was revoked by the new Secretary for the Environment, Transport and the Regions who made the Statutory Order, No 1725, in 1999, namely “The A35 Trunk Road (Chideock Morcombelake Bypass) Order 1996 (Revocation Order) 1999. (Made, 16th June 1999: Came into Force 30 June 1999, signed by Derek Oddy, Divisional Director of the Highways Agency.)

The funding was withdrawn and much of the purchased land was sold back. It was not a few influential people in Chideock, or the part of the village which objected to the chosen route, that prevented the road from being built. Their voice had been fairly heard in the Inquiry. It was the Government of the day.

It is therefore up to the Government and our new MP to solve the problem they have created. Perhaps the South West might get a little of the investment currently going to the North for political reasons?

These facts are all publicly available in the National Archives, the Dorset History Centre and online.

Your correspondent is the person who needs to ‘come clean’. Has he read the documents?

Denys Brunsden

Seahill Lane

Chideock