Plan is parked as confusion overtakes review of traffic

THE FUTURE of parking in Teignmouth has been deferred for three months after the town council changed their view on proposals only hours beforehand at what was described as a “chaotic meeting”.

The Teignbridge Highways and Traffic Orders Committee was due to commission a review of the Teignmouth Traffic Management Review, initially implemented in the town in March 2017.

But the meeting heard that at an earlier Teignmouth Town Council meeting, the council had voted almost unanimously to change its comments on the proposals, and rather than support the review, requested that winter parking charges on the Upper Den carriageway be revoked, but a plan to stop parking be implemented, and that the residents’ parking zones introduced in 2017 be revoked.

The Teignbridge HATOC agreed to defer any decision until its next meeting in February and that officers start talks now to come up with a solution.

The previously introduced traffic review saw residents parking introduced in all or sections of Bitton Park Road, Boscawen Place, Daimonds Lane, Exeter Street, Gladstone Terrace, Grove Avenue, Heywoods Road, Higher Brimley Road, Landscore Close, Salisbury Terrace, Shute Hill, Shute Hill Crescent and Winterbourne Road introduced; a 30-minute free period in Wellington Street; a one-way system implemented from west to east on Higher Brimley Road; and extending the closure peri- od on the Upper Den Promenade to cover May 1 to September 10 but introducing pay and display when the road is open.

Joan Atkins, a resident representing 98 people who live within the residents’ parking zone, said Teignmouth Town Council had ignored their views.

She said: “The residents’ parking zone has worked well. The air quality has improved, the safety of residents has improved, and stress levels and damage to property has been reduced. The residents’ parking zone has given respite for the residents living there. It needs some tweaks, but there is no reason to remove the whole zone as the town council seems to want. Teignmouth’s parking problems won’t be solved by removing this and removing it would be a retrograde step.”

But Cllr Sylvia Russell, who represents Teignmouth on Devon County Council, said the residents’ parking zone in the town has “not been as successful as people like to think and the displacement of other vehicles has had a divisive effect”.