NO CHANGES are planned to the ongoing A338 roadworks, Dorset County Council says.

Despite pleas from Bournemouth businesses for a longer suspension of work in the run up to Christmas, to minimise the impact on the festive shopping season, County says the work schedule cannot be altered without causing worse congestion down the line.

Councillor Daryl Turner, cabinet member for natural and built environment, said: "We are sincerely sorry that these road works are causing such inconvenience to so many people.

"Unfortunately if we don’t make these improvements to the A338 now, it won’t be fit for purpose in the future and the delays we are seeing will be a daily occurrence."

He said if work was delayed by an additional month before Christmas "this will only result in the scheme finishing later".

"Because the number of cars on this road in the summer months are so much higher, congestion then would be much worse than we are currently seeing," he said.

"This current phase of work has achieved more than expected, as the northbound central reservation widening will have been completed at the same time. This will save time on the programme of works with the Dorset boundary, and further time savings may be able to be found during the next phase of works.

"I’d like to reiterate our apologies to everyone that is frustrated by these roadworks. We are doing everything we can to minimise delays and get the job done as quickly as possible."

He said officers from Dorset and Bournemouth councils plan to meet with representatives of the Town Centre and Coastal BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) next week to discuss their concerns.

Last week Paul Kinvig, chief operating officer of the Town Centre BID, called on Bournemouth council leader Cllr John Beesley to "fight" for the extended suspension of work, as well as for more night and weekend working.

He said the current situation was "utterly unacceptable".

Cllr Beesley responded to say that his influence was limited and talk of shoppers shunning the town due to the work was at risk of becoming a "self-fulfilling prophecy".

The work, due to last nine months, will see a new lane created at Blackwater Junction, to which end the bridges which carry the road over the River Stour need to be strengthened.

The county council says the work must be carried out in a particular order as "there is not enough work or space for one activity to be going on at the same time as another, particularly on the bridge which is the critical activity".

"We are currently working on a physically small area, where there is not sufficient space to introduce more workmen to accelerate the programme," County said in a statement.

"We can only work with one gang on the bridge, breaking out concrete, as there isn’t the room for one gang to get past the other in a single closure – and it is only a short length of work.

"We cannot work the around the clock as then the wagons delivering and removing materials from site on the other works at night will not be able to get out of the site."

The authority said work was continuing at nights and on Saturdays but not on Sundays which "is the time we have built in as a float".