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KEYHOLE Bridge has reopened to traffic after months of controversy surrounding its closure. BCP Council’s scrutiny board voted against extending the Keyhole Bridge traffic order last Monday, paving the way for the reopening of Whitecliff Road. But why was the road closed and what has happened since July last year?
Background BCP Council were indicatively awarded around £1.4million last year from the government’s active travel fund to support people cycling and walking. In July, we reported that a “trial modal filter” was set to be installed at Keyhole Bridge in Whitecliff Road. But the scheme attracted opposition from opposition councillors and people living nearby who criticised a “lack of consultation”.
PLANS to sell a public car park in Christchurch to Waitrose are to be reviewed after concerns were raised by the town’s mayor. Councillor Lesley Dedman said there was “a complete lack of transparency” over the proposed deal for the Bypass facility and for how parking provision would be protected. But the leader of BCP Council said the need to keep the supermarket chain was “imperative” to the future of the town. The council’s cabinet will be asked to approve a deal to sell the Bypass car park next week after Waitrose threatened against renewing its lease without control of it.
Setback for Dorset in the budget as freeport bid fails to win approval DORSET has suffered a blow in the budget after its application for a low-tax “freeport” was left off the list of bids approved by the government. Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a boost for Southampton by backing the Solent Freeport application, but did not give the green light to a scheme for Bournemouth Airport and the Port of Poole. The setback came alongside the good news that BCP Council would receive £21.7million from the government’s Towns Fund to regenerate Boscombe. Council leader Drew Mellor said: “We ve had some excellent feedback and we qualified against the government criteria which is a great credit to the bid partnership and we made the final ministerial decision so we re economically on the map. We’re ready and waiting for round two.”
On the morning after, we look at some of the effects the Budget could have in Dorset.
HELP FOR HOSPITALITY AND RETAIL Dorset’s hospitality industry got some of the key concessions it asked for from the chancellor. The reduced five per cent VAT rate for hospitality and tourism will stay in place util September 30 and will then go up to 12.5 per cent before reaching its original 20 per cent next April. Alcohol duty will also stay as it is. For Andy Lennox, founder of the Wonky Table group that grew up to represent Dorset bars, restaurants and events companies in lockdown, that was the key concession. “We’re standing here with shattered balance sheets, heavily in debt, with little to no cash reserves,” he said.