YOU report that the passenger ferry Barfleur will return to the Poole-Cherbourg route on March 18 (Daily Echo, January 26) and conclude: “Cherbourg is becoming increasingly attractive as a gateway to France thanks to the newly completed dual-carriageway all the way down the Cotentin Peninsula.”
Immediately that begs the question of how attractive is Poole as a gateway to Britain, given the deplorable lack of a viable northbound link from Poole to its hinterland in north-west Britain?
This lack of a 64-mile stretch of modern dual-carriageway from Ringwood to the M4 at Swindon effectively isolates Poole from its natural hinterland and makes it very hard for the port to compete with its great rival, Portsmouth.
It must also be in our national interest to provide industry in Wales and the West Midlands with easy access to the Poole-Cherbourg route, especially now that on the south side of the Channel there’s a dual-carriageway road and a motorway across France and into Spain.
JOHN PROBERT
Sherwood Avenue
Poole
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