What do you think?
How can the SW’s transport connectivity be improved? Join the debate by emailing letters@westerndailypress.co.uk and including your name and address
are merely temporary. Problems of this nature were, I imagine, identified before the Prime Minister signed us up to his much-vaunted ‘frictionless’ trade deal, yet still we signed.
We now have the embarrassing spectacle of senior ministers sabrerattling at the EU because they do not like the results of what their own administration has agreed.
I have no doubt that there is an element of protectionism around the single market. No surprises there – few countries fail to protect their economic interests. But we have put ourselves beyond that protection.
By leaving the single market, we are subject to the same rules as any other third party state. We surely knew that before we left. Now we must live with the consequences, ‘leavers’ and ‘remainers’ alike.
P J Knowles Taunton, Somerset needs to take urgent action to introduce and enforce regulations governing the ownership and operation of e-scooters.
Few of those one sees on e-scooters seem to be aware (or care?) that while it is legal to own one it is already illegal to use them on public roads, cycle lanes, pavements or pedestrian areas.
In recent weeks I have twice narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding e-scooter on the pavement while waiting at a bus stop. And I have lost count of the number of times I have seen (and almost been hit by) one hurtling through the pedestrianised areas of Christchurch Road between the Triangle and Horseshoe Common, including The Square! They must be regulated in the same way as any other motorised vehicle – at the very least they must be registered, carry a registration plate and third-party insurance should be mandatory for anyone driving/operating an e-scooter. Robert Readman
Bournemouth barmy ‘solution’ from Network Rail, which involved moving the Dawlish/ Teignmouth coastal rail line, further down the beach!
Torbay, Totnes, Ivybridge, Plymouth and the whole county of Cornwall have a single railway link, and were all completely cut off in 2014, when the sea wall was breached. Whilst I welcome the reopening of part of the Northern Dartmoor route, between Exeter and Okehampton, this will create two ‘branch’ lines (Exeter to Okehampton and Plymouth to Gunnislake – and the Bere Alston to Tavistock reinstatement has still not materialised!) and these two branch lines will not provide the plethora of destination options that the complete, bi-directional reopening of the Northern Dartmoor route would provide.
There has to be a secondary rail link west of Exeter, and the reinstatement of the Northern Dartmoor route – ex-Southern main line – would provide this, as well as bringing swathes of the West Country closer to a rail link once again.
Network Rail even said themselves that reopening the Northern Dartmoor line was the best solution.
Reopening the ‘missing link’ between Meldon and Bere Alston would provide the following:
1) Provide a service again, in its own right, to both Okehampton and Tavistock, and reconnect them to the rest of the UK rail network.
2) Provide a vital ‘backup’ route for the inevitability of the Dawlish/ Teignmouth coastal route being hit by storms, and the cessation and disruption of services.
3) Relieve the enormous pressure