£8m road safety scheme moves step closer

A landslip at the site in March 2016 pushed the concrete barriers aside

An £8m road safety scheme has moved a step closer after an agreement was reached on the felling of 80 trees.

Dorset Council said the trees needed to be felled to prepare for eventual land stabilisation works to prevent landslides at Dinah's Hollow at Melbury Abbas.

The parish council said the proposals were excessive and a simpler scheme that protected the trees should be adopted.

But the head of highways at Dorset Council said there was a risk of a fatality at the Hollow unless the proposed tree felling and full stabilisation works went ahead.

All of the trees are currently covered by a blanket Tree Protection Order.

The trees need to be felled prior to land stabilisation works, Dorset Council said

The road is one of the main north-south routes in the county.

The plans involve felling 80 trees and coppicing 38 more. About 100 will be left untouched, including oaks, sycamore and Scots pine on the 984ft (300m) long section.

Chairman of Melbury Abbas and Cann parish council David Webber told Dorset councillors at a meeting on Monday that consultants from Exeter had come up with a simpler scheme involving fewer nails driven into the banks.

He said it would look better, protect more of the trees, and be cheaper than Dorset Council's scheme.

But head of highways at Dorset Council, Jack Wiltshire, said the council had fully considered landscape and environmental impacts with input from experts, but remained convinced the tree works were necessary to allow Dorset Council to stabilise the banks on either side of the road.

The trees are currently all covered by a blanket Tree Protection Order

Running in parallel with the tree works is the preparation of Compulsory Purchase Orders for land, in separate ownerships, on either side of the Hollow – a process which could take two years to complete.

Normally permission to fell protected trees only stands for two years, but this tree work application would cover a period of five years, to allow the Compulsory Purchase Orders to be decided.