The Future of Ferrybridge (written in 1993)

Ferrybridge will continue to grow in popularity as residents and holidaymakers alike recognise its special qualities. Unfortunately, this popularity may also bring with it the seeds of destruction, if it is not strictly regulated.

In the last three decades the volume of traffic to and from the Isle of Portland has grown alarmingly - employment and housing on the Island has expanded, and more and more people have acquired cars - and the traffic volume on a national basis is predicted to double in the next two decades. The Dorset County Council and the Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have decided that a new road is required in order to improve access to Ferry Bridge and the Isle of Portland. The latest Local Plan states in Policy TR3 - A354 Rodwell and Wyke Regis Relief Road - "It is proposed to construct the A354 relief road as a primary route between Weymouth and Portland from Chickerell Road, via the west of Lanehouse and Wyke Regis, to Ferrybridge. Land is reserved for this purpose and no development prejudicial to the eventual construction of the road will be permitted. The route will be subject to a full environmental assessment".

Unfortunately this means building a road through the precious Heritage Coast of Wyke and Chickerell, alongside the unique, historic, and beautiful Fleet waters. At Ferrybridge the new road (presently planned to be built around the year 2001) would intrude into the Ramsar site itself (a wetland of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention), before bisecting the narrow buffer zone of green fields bordering the Fleet and Chesil Beach, which (as Don Moxom has so clearly described in Chapter 2) are internationally important for their communities of native plants, animals, local and migratory birds. The Heritage Coast is also an important element in the outstanding coastal landscape.

The qualities of peace, tranquillity and remoteness are all very strong features of the experience of a visit to this stretch of Dorset's Heritage Coast - qualities that would be completely destroyed by the intrusion of a major road. Fortunately the Wyke Regis Protection Society, Chickerell Parish Council, and the Chesil Area Society are determined to vigorously oppose such destruction, and have commissioned Mrs Ursula H. Bowen MA MIBiol to conduct an independent Environmental Survey, and the results will be used to defend the Heritage Coast at any Public Inquiry. Perhaps, with the Ministry of Defence drastically reducing its role as an employer in the South Dorset area there will cease to be sufficient justification for a new road.

Another looming threat to Ferrybridge comes from the 1991 EC Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive that requires all substantial discharges of sewage into the sea to be treated before discharge - improvements are supposed to be in place by 2001. For technical and economic reasons Wessex Water has advised that these new treatment facilities (an enormous sewage farm) have to be sited close to the present headworks at Martleaves, Wyke Regis, which currently discharges all of Weymouth and Portland's macerated sewage waste into Lyme Bay, via a long sea outfall pipe.

The latest Weymouth and Portland Local Plan states "....Clearly such a scheme will potentially have very significant environmental implications for the local area in this part of Wyke Regis as well as on the wider landscape and areas of landscape and nature conservation importance in the vicinity of the site. This "cost" has to be balanced against improvements to the quality of the sea that will result. Other potential impacts include those on the proposed "western" route and on the Chesil Beach Holiday Park". The management of the Holiday Park have already stated that the Park will no longer be viable if the road and sewage schemes proceed with a loss of some three hundred caravans to the area, and the Abbotsbury Oysters Farm will either be cut off from the Fleet waters by the new road, or cut of from its passing customers - it to will find it difficult to survive, as will the several small farms along the route.

Clearly the Heritage Coastal area of Wyke Regis is under considerable threat, but there are some positive proposals taking shape at other parts of Ferrybridge. A Ferrybridge Management Plan has been produced, and a new Visitors Centre at the Chesil Beach Car Park has recently (April 1993) gained planning approval from the Weymouth and Portland Borough Council. It will be a permanent building to accommodate toilets, cafe, and information/resource centre.

The Hamm Beach on the Portland Harbour side of the isthmus is very popular with sail boarders. In an attempt to minimise the danger to those having to cross the Portland Beach Road the Dorset County Council is proposing that a subway be provided beneath the A354 (subject to obtaining the necessary consents and funds being available). The Local Plan does not support the provision of additional car parking on the Ham side of the Beach Road, but is does suggest that more land next to the boatyard be allocated for an improved windsurfing facility.

The Local Plan also recognises that the coastline within Portland Harbour is of considerable importance in ecological and marine conservation terms. Past proposals have suggested the construction of a marina in Portland Harbour, just to the north-east of Smallmouth, but it is now recognised that this would cause considerable ecological damage. The Local Plan suggests that, with the imminent close of the Portland Naval Base, that area of the Harbour will have considerable potential use as a marina.

The Ferrybridge area has always provided a living for some the local people - initially in the fishing and farming industries, but latterly also including tourism, oyster farming, boat storage and repair, the manufacturing of components for the automobile industry at AE Piston Products (the old Whiteheads Torpedo Factory) and the production of fibre reinforced products at Tods. These enterprises must be encourage to remain, hopefully to re-invest and regenerate to provide continuing employment for local people.

In particular, it is evident that much of the fabric of the old Whitehead Factory (built in 1891) is beyond repair, and needs to be replaced. If the present highly valued automotive components business decides it cannot expand to make use of all of the site then perhaps part of the area could be split off, to form the basis of a small but modern industrial estate, thus potentially providing craft jobs for future generations of residents.

The area of Ferrybridge, along with the Fleet and the Chesil Bank, are one of Weymouth and Portland's greatest assets. Its future potential as a very pleasant place for water related recreation and sports is considerable. It provides an essential breeding and resting site for many birds, insects and animals. It is the only road link between the mainland at Wyke Regis and the Island of Portland, and it is essential to the future social and economic development of the people of Weymouth and Portland.

The challenge facing the people who work, rest, or play at Ferrybridge is how all these conflicting interests can be satisfied without causing irretrievable damage to the outstanding natural environment.

May God guide us!

The Saga of Ferry Bridge
by Skylark Durstan of Portland

Before this inlet had a name
Or knew a human face,
Before the early cavemen came
It was a pleasant place.

The Anglo Saxons gave it a name
with others of its kind,
And inlets such as this became
The Fleet "time out of mind".

The Roman soldiers came this way
Resistance put to rout,
The Roundheads later came to stay
And starved the King's men out.

St. George's church to consecrate
Was Bishop Newton sent,
But when he saw the Fleet in spate
Retreat was his intent.

The Ferryman, not knowing why,
Decided there and then,
The dear man should be carried high
By Portland quarrymen.

A Prodical on reaching here
Allowed himself to smile,
For him this was no barrier
But a gateway to the Isle.

The storm of eighteen twenty four
We will not dwell upon,
Wyke woke up to a mighty roar
And most of Fleet was gone.

It's seen the railway come and go
The Ferry boat as well,
Primed with the little that we know
What stories they would tell.

Within its well known hostelry
The anglers tell their tales,
Short sometimes on veracity
They drew the lines at Whales.

In two world wars the men of arms
Encamped around this place,
The bouncing bomb of Wallis Barnes
Was tested in this space.

The memories of tradgedy
Are never far away,
The seas own mournful litany
Is chanted night and day.

On stormy days a wind sock flies
The bridge demands respect,
And he who common sense defies
May perish in neglect.

Small industries cling round its throat
And struggle to survive,
Against the tide they stay afloat
To keep their hopes alive.

We hope the oyster farm does well
Naive I know but nice,
Could someone find inside a shell
A pearl of greatest price.

The Fleet is rich in history
Enough to make a book,
Shades of mood and mystery
Are every where you look.

Wyke Regis should be proud to be
The trustee of Small Mouth,
Protecting for Posterity
This "Jewel" of the South.