NOTICE:  The next meeting of the Parish Council will take place at 7pm on Thursday 12th March 2026 at Shipton Gorge Village Hall.  If you have any queries please contact the Clerk Debbie Hollings.

A35 Charmouth to Yellowham Safety Scheme     

                                                        We have received the following information from National Highways regarding the A35 Charmouth to Yellowham Safety Scheme. We will keep you up to date with any further updates from National Highways.

Please see the below update regarding the A35 safety scheme in Dorset for which delivery ramps up in the coming weeks. I appreciate this has been a much-discussed topic over the years and so hope this helps to provide some clarity.

In March 2024, National Highways made lining improvements along the A35 which marked the start of delivery of a wider safety study covering the A35 and this will be continuing in December 2025. The work runs from Charmouth to Yellowham and with a value of £1.8m is an investment and commitment to improve safety in the county. The scheme is aiming to make the route more intuitive to drive through consistency around bends, extension of speed limits, improved lining and signing & greater clarity around village gateways. As well as this we will be looking to bring in average speed cameras to protect the villages of Winterbourne Abbas, Morcombelake and Chideock.

Throughout the development of the scheme we have worked with key local stakeholders and are grateful for the support of the parish councils, Dorset Police, road safety partnerships and local MPs whose input has helped shape our work and bring about these much needed safety improvements through the county. We are back on the ground in December with lots of work to be delivered into Spring 2026.

What will the improvements look like once complete?
The scheme is focussed on improving safety through introducing greater consistency and clarity for drivers.

This involves signage upgrades to ensure speed signs are upgraded to yellow back signs, chevron signs to highlight upcoming bends & clearer village gateway signs to help highlight the changing nature of the route to drivers and improve safety in these village settings.
We propose to implement average speed cameras in the 3 villages of Winterbourne Abbas, Morcombelake and Chideock.

Speed limits will be made consistent along the route with some extensions to ensure they account for the nature of the location and its associated hazards.

Further lining improvements will be on the ground to highlight hazards and changing road conditions reducing the likelihood of incidents on the network.

Kerb works to increase and improve crossing opportunities along the route.

What will this look like during delivery?
1. There’s lots of work to deliver on top of the ongoing maintenance work associated with the DBFO handback which will be coming back to National Highways on 1 October 2026.
2. Due to the nature of the works we will be working during the day with lane closures and traffic signals – this will include up to 4 locations between Charmouth and Yellowham being on the ground at a time
3. In December our work will be focussed on 2 main activities, civils work in Morcombelake & setting out.
– Setting Out: this is preparatory work, marking out key sites to ensure work in the new year can be undertaken smoothly.
– Civils work in Morcombelake: We will be undertaking work in Morcombelake focussed on pedestrian crossing points and the first of our new signs.
4. In the new year, the rest of the work detailed above will be rolled out along the route and comms will be shared with stakeholders to share with the communities as well as on our website.

How will this affect you?
1. There will be some delays along the route while our crews are on the ground. Whilst this will be programmed to minimise the impact within the routes constraints you’ll still see lots of work being undertaken
2. The end product will be a safer, more efficient route that is intuitive for locals, tourists & businesses – reducing the number of incidents and therefore the impacts associated with such incidents.
As always please do let us know if you have any questions regarding any of the above and we thank you for your patience during the delivery phase.

Many thanks, Jonny

Jonny Hill Route Manager – Somerset, Dorset & Devon (East of Exeter)
South West Operations
National Highways
Web: www.nationalhighways.co.uk

Shipton Gorge Parish Council we will keep you up to date with any further updates from National Highways that we receive. You can view further details on the scheme at https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/south-west/safety-schemes-in-the-south-west-region/

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