PLANS to improve south Dorset's connection to the motorway network have today been backed by council chiefs.

A government study has recommended that the A358 road, between Yeovil and Taunton, should be widened and made into a dual carriageway.

It is also recommended that an additional part of the A303 be dualled as well, but not along the area through the environmentally-sensitive Blackdown Hills.

The study, known as SWARMMS, was the largest of more than 20 studies set up by the government to identify transport problems.

The plan will now go to the South West Regional Assembly which will decide how the findings should link in with the region's overall transport strategy.

Drivers in Dorset, who regard the route which runs to Taunton via South Petherton and Ilminster in Somerset as the main route to the motorway, have complained for years the region gets a raw deal with its poor transport links to the motorway network.

Brian Ellis, chairman of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's tourism and economic committee, said: "As far as we're concerned getting better links to the motorway has been a long term campaign.

"Improving the road would mean not just more tourists travelling here but also businesses would be more inclined to set up in the area."

Former county and borough council leader Alan Chedzoy, who has been a key campaigner for Weymouth's proposed Brown Route road, said: "I'm in favour of any improvements to our road links to the south west but locally it is important that we still press the case for own road which should perhaps receive greater priority."

Environmental group CPRE said the plan to widen the road would defeat the object of the proposals.

Henrietta Sherwin, CPRE's South West regional transport campaigner, said: "The study has made some good suggestions for the way forward but the plan for the dualling of the A358 will fuel traffic growth."

Director of Transport at the government office for the South West, Richard Bayly, said: "The study provides the research basis for the recommendations."