9:41am Wednesday 23rd January 2008
By Harry Walton
NEW objections have been lodged to compulsory purchase orders linked to plans for Weymouth's £84 million relief road.
The objections will go before inspector Alan Gray when he reconvenes a public inquiry into compulsory purchase and side road orders at County Hall, Dorchester, on March 11.
County council relief road project manager Matthew Piles explained that the objections include ones from the Woodland Trust and Dorset Wildlife Trust.
He said: "The inspector has made his final site visit and the county council is working very productively towards preparing for the resumption of the inquiry.
"That will consider an objection from the Woodland Trust who are not prepared to agree to an exchange of land which would effectively give them a piece of land to replace their land lost to the scheme at Two Mile Coppice.
"It is the Woodland Trust's case that they don't think it is an equal exchange because the land they would lose is ancient woodland which is irreplaceable.
"We accept that the new land cannot replace the ancient woodland being lost but our argument is that we are providing more land at Horselynch Plantation than is being lost at Two Mile Coppice and that it is 200-year-old woodland which is publicly accessible.
"Dorset Wildlife Trust also objects because they would like to manage the ecological mitigation area as a whole and fear is may be fragmented. We are now working with the Trust to try and answer their concerns."
DWT conservation head Imogen Davenport said: "I am very much hoping that we can resolve all the issues we have raised with the county council to our satisfaction before the inquiry resumes.
"We need some reassurances including one that we can continue to manage most of the Lorton Meadows nature reserve."
Justin Millward for the Woodland Trust said: "Basically we do not feel that the land we are being offered by the county council to make up for losing ancient woodland at Two Miles Coppice is comparable. Ancient woodland is irreplaceable."
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