Radio interview

Interview on Solent - Guy Dickinson and J Knight 5th March 2007

This interview took place at about 1750 on March 5th.

“Let’s talk about the Olympics for a moment. The cost of the 2012 games has been in the spotlight again today. The culture secretary, Tessa Jowell,l has been answering questions in the Commons about funding. The Olympics of course will bring thousands of people to the south coast to watch the sailing at Weymouth and Portland. In the meantime the debate over whether to build the controversial Weymouth Relief Road continues. A final decision is expected on April the 5th but the plans are being vociferously opposed by a new campaign group called Bypass The Bypass. From the group is Dr Guy Dickinson who joins me on the line now.

“Good evening to you, Guy”. “Good evening”

“What are you hoping to achieve with Bypass The Bypass? Pretty simple is it? You just don’t want the road built!”

“We certainly don’t. The main aims of the group are first of all to provide good accurate information to the public and I don’t think they’ve been getting all of that. Secondly to protect the countryside, which is going to be devastated by this road. Also to show that there are plenty of other ways to improve the transport which is undoubtedly a problem from time to time up the Dorchester Road and also perhaps to force a public enquiry if necessary so that the issues can be presented to an independent inspector”

“Can the games and the sailing events at Weymouth and Portland be a success without some sort of major transport improvement on the link between Dorchester and Weymouth?”

“Absolutely they can. First of all I think the amount of spectators coming to the Olympic Games in Weymouth has been slightly overplayed because what you can see from the beach is a load of little dots on the horizon. You can’t go anywhere near them in a boat because of sort of security reasons. So there probably aren’t going to be so many spectators as you think. But the London Olympic Committee for their 2012 Candidate File for their bid said they were committed to ensure the spectators arrived by public transport, foot or cycle. They didn’t want any new roads. They also provided nearly 500 million dollars to improve the rail network between Waterloo and Weymouth and much of that I gather has already been spent. They were going to build a temporary park and ride for a 1000 cars costing another million dollars I believe in Weymouth and they were going to reduce the 7000 car parking spaces to 500 for the duration of the games so you can’t really drive here anyway.

“Just for now, Guy, thanks you. Jim Knight, the South Dorset MP constituency of Weymouth of course. Very much affected by this Good evening to you, Jim.” “Good evening”. “So they have overestimated the number of visitors and you don’t actually need this road at all?”

“Well, we need the road whether or not the Olympics is going to come to Weymouth but we know that the Olympics is, and if we are going to realise that what we need to do is to use it to attract investment into the area on the back of the showcase that the Olympics offers to investors. We have some of the lowest wages anywhere in the country in Dorset. We desperately need new employers to come in and they will be coming along in their nice big yachts to come and have a look at the event close up and what they will find is an area in gridlock. In respect of those people that do want to come to the events and they will be put off unless we have this road and when the Candidate File was submitted to the International Olympic Committee at that point as is the case now provisional financial approval had been given by central government to the road and it was a fair bet that we were going to get the Relief Road at that point anyway”.

“That said you can’t improve that link between Dorchester and Weymouth without damaging the environment in one way or another – it’s a difficult balancing act”

“It is and that’s why I got the route changed to go along an existing transport corridor so we are not opening up a new transport corridor – it will run alongside the railway track and the effect on carbon emissions in respect of our national CO2 figure is 0.00004 percent. It is a negligible impact but it will reduce the amount of congestion on the road and will reduce the amount of emissions for the people living around the Dorchester Road which will be significant in improving their environment and their quality of life as well as having important impact on the economy and on that basis I think it is sustainable development which is balancing socio-economic and environmental impacts”.

“Jim thank you for joining us. I will let you go, we are struggling a little bit with the line with the mobile phone signal but Dr Guy Dickinson who is still with us. There is a very low carbon footprint, its obviously economic benefits and the roads going to be left for generations to come?”

“Well it’s not going to be a negligible carbon footprint. The carbon dioxide output has been predicted to increase by something like 2000 tonnes a year and that was by I think Dorset County Council’s own investigation into it. Its also going to ruin ancient woodland and other beautiful countryside as well. And you say the road will be there for generations to come…but in generations to come there won’t be cars like we’ve got now, we’ll just have a heap of tarmac, millions of tons of tarmac lying there with no useful purpose at all”.

“The decision is expected on April the 5th – in the meantime what are you going to do to try and ensure you get the public enquiry on this?”. “Well we are going to try and persuade as many people as possible – you know, the common sense of it – and change a few minds”. “Alright, listen thank you to you and to Jim Knight, South Dorset MP for coming on the programme, Dr Guy Dickinson from Bypass the Bypass group and local MP Jim Knight. I’m sure this is one we will return to. Decision expected on April the 5th. And its one we’ll come back to”.