Work has started on building the £6.31m new road in Gillingham to support the proposed housing development between New Road and Shaftesbury Road, the southern expansion, with preparations underway on site.

The bid was awarded by Homes England’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) for £6.31m to design, secure planning approval and build this principal street through the development. Dorset Highways contractor Hanson UK has started setting up site offices and the compound needed while Principal Street is built between New Road and Shaftesbury Road, as well as building construction access from Shaftesbury Road.

The 1.3km residential road will have a 30mph speed limit, a shared footway and cycleway on both sides of the road, street-lighting, parking spaces and green verges planted with trees. There will be no through access along the route until Welbeck Land Ltd has completed its first phase of development, which includes building the final junction at the eastern end of Principal Street (onto Shaftesbury Road).

The road will be adopted by Dorset Council at the end of its construction, with the council taking responsibility for its maintenance. However, the scheme has received some criticism from Facebook users, asking why development is needed in the town with a ‘lack of infrastructure and employment’ in the area.

And an email to the New Blackmore Vale, the author of which wished to remain anonymous, said: “The comments on Facebook regarding the fact Principal Street is on the flood plain between East Stour and Gillingham have been removed. A more appropriate name for the road would be Quagmire Lane or Flood Lane. The West End junction is at an area presently visible from the B3092 often flooded or under water.”

“Boy or girl racers have ploughed through the hedge at the end of the straight leaving Gillingham. A watery end to their stranded vehicles! The area to the west of the Dorset Council map is often flooded, with the road under water, especially where the excess water from the River Lodden and River Stour combine.”

The consortium and landowners’ collective vision for Gillingham’s southern extension is for a comprehensively planned and delivered, sustainable mixed use community that is both physically and socially integrated with the existing settlement.

A statement said: “Providing a mix of housing, jobs and supporting infrastructure, the southern extension will promote the self-containment of Gillingham and will encourage sustainable movement choices. Set within an extensive landscape framework, the southern extension will be a high quality, attractive, vibrant and desirable place to live, work and play.”

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