A35 Trunk Road / National Highways

National Highways - update on A35 Safety Scheme.  (December 2025)

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. 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?

• 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.

• 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

• 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. 

• 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?

• 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

• 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. 

Proposed speed limit changes

·   New 50mph speed limit between Coombe Road and Monkey’s Jump Roundabout.

·   New 50mph speed limit between Long Bredy Hut lane and Winterbourne Abbas.

General Information 

This very busy A35 trunk road runs through Winterbourne Abbas. As it is a trunk road, it is managed by National Highways (formerly Highways England) with their contractor Balfour Beatty carrying out the maintenance works. Dorset Council Highways are responsible for the other roads that connect with it.

Contacts : 

National Highways  General enquiries : 0300 123 5000

Jonny Hill  (Route Manager) Tel 0300 470 3954 email : Jonathan.Hill@nationalhighways.co.uk 

(from late September 2023)

Balfour Beatty (Exeter)  

Mr Andrew Kirby mob : 07814 969105  email : andrew.kirby@balfourbeatty.com

Claire Dean (Sen Technician) Tel 01404 823381  email : claire.dean@balfourbeatty.com

At September 2023 : National Highways have stated that they will be clearing the leat adjoining the A35 through Winterbourne Abbas village and will undertake this on an annual basis now.

The Feasbility Study below was undertaken by Road Connect for Highways England (now National Highways) in late 2018 and the draft report was published in January 2019. Only the conclusions and recommendations from this lengthy report are shown below.

It is our understanding that the recommedations were accepted and were put forward for the necessary funding. The primary recommendation is for average speed cameras for the speed restricted section of the A35 through Winterbourne Abbas. These have proven to be very successful in limiting speeds. 

June 2023 : The Parish Council had a useful walk through and meeting with National Highways about the issues relating to the A35 in W.Abbas. 

September 2023 : The Parish Council will by attending a meeting organised by the A35 Parishes Group in early October. It is hoped that this group will have far greater influence than individual parishes. Our issues are largely the same.