London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

I wish to address my relatively brief remarks to clause 4, which deals with traffic and is entitled ““Orders and notices relating to temporary prohibitions etc. on roads””. Under paragraph 15 of the schedule to the Olympic Route Network Designation Order 2009, the A31 from its junction with the A35, going east to junction 1 of the M27 is part of that network. It includes junctions, slip roads and roundabouts. Under section 11 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, the Secretary of State is allowed to designate roads"““for the purpose of facilitating travel… to and from London Olympic events””" and for ““other purposes connected”” thereto. I have a number of questions to put to the Minister, particularly about the interaction of this order and proposed works to the Canford Bottom roundabout, which is a notorious junction in the vicinity of Wimborne. It is encountered by people travelling west on the A31 after a period of travel on a single carriageway and it then continues with a single carriageway on the other side. Four other roads join it, so there is an intersection of six roads around one roundabout. I can confidently predict that at this time, on the eve of a bank holiday, it will already be clogged with traffic, particularly in a westerly direction. That is the situation during the holiday season, and of course the Olympic games will take place at the height of the holiday season next year. Although we in Dorset are delighted that the Olympic sailing venue will be in Weymouth, for my constituents in the east of Dorset, Weymouth is at least an hour’s drive away in normal conditions. We are not talking about a local venue, but about a venue some distance away. The Minister and the Government have said all along that the intention is that the activities of local people and businesses should not be disrupted by the establishment of the Olympic route network. What concerns me is the interaction between these proposals and the Government’s proposals to change the layout at the Canford Bottom roundabout. There has been a long-standing campaign for a flyover at Canford Bottom, but it would cost well over £10 million and is apparently unaffordable in the present circumstances. The Government have therefore produced an alternative proposal to replace the roundabout with what is described as a hamburger junction. There was a consultation meeting in my constituency on the subject at the end of last month. A hamburger junction is something of a rarity in my part of the world, and when I asked where one could be found, I was told that the closest was in Cardiff. Replacing a roundabout with a hamburger junction is certainly a novel approach.