NEW roadside verges are to be installed along heathland roads in the Corfe Castle and Wareham area to protect the environment - with others closed off.

The road between Hartland and Norden, from Middlebere Heath to New Mills Heath has, until now, seen a number of ad hoc parking spaces develop.

Now the National Trust and other partners, including the RSPB, is proposing to create a series of formal parking areas to reduce further deterioration of the verges and to prevent damage to sensitive sites.

An application for the parking areas says that around 25 sites currently exist where vehicles regularly park but are not designated as such.

Much of the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and the newly formed Purbeck Heaths National Nature Reserve.

The now approved application says that the National Trust, and its partners, in consultation with Natural England, have created a joint plan to rationalise the parking and mitigate the impact of people on the highly sensitive landscape.

“In order to minimise the 'ad hoc' nature of the parking, the proposal is to prevent parking in the most sensitive areas and to direct all parking to specific points of entry. Some of those sites will require some essential work to restore or enhance designated parking spaces using some ditching and banking and locally sourced inert stone,” said an application document to Dorset Council for planning consent.

The proposal also includes enhancing existing areas of ditching and banking along parts of Arne Road and Soldier's Road, as well as to the areas on the Hartland-Norden road.

The measures are likely to result in the creation of around 45 parking spaces and will result in the closure of a number of existing ad hoc spaces.

Support for the proposals has come from Corfe Castle Parish Council which commented: “We recommend that the verges all be repaired and in particular the ones on the road just west of Scotland farm. We also recommend that passing places be provided because a lot of the current deterioration has been caused by vehicles going onto the verge in order to pass each other.”

Funding for the project has come from the government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund and the Heathland Mitigation Fund with work expected to be contracted by the end of the current financial year.