Dawlish – Secmaton Lane

by Martin Wrigley on 5 November, 2015

Development Framework

 

In Dawlish Town Council on October 7th we debated the latest alterations to the Teignbridge Local Plan.   We concluded that Dawlish deserves better.

 

This new framework is once again driven by the needs of the developers and ignores the needs of the residents. We have to get a better balance between the two.   I can understand that the developers need a commercial deal – but the residents need at least to maintain their quality of life.

 

We had representatives from Secmaton Lane telling us not only about the issues with sewage overflowing down the lane because the system couldn’t cope with the new developments uphill, but also of the traffic chaos and obstructions caused by the construction of just one house up the lane. This new proposal has up to 51 new houses causing more such chaos.

 

But what about the other hundreds of houses? Well they would keep on using Elm Grove Road. This puts not only extra commuting traffic past Gatehouse Primary school and Dawlish Community College, but also all of the construction traffic.

 

Imagine the traffic queues, with diesel lorries and cars, backed up in front of the school when as traffic waits for the proposed traffic lights at Elm Grove Road and Exeter Road – and mind the bikes on the new cycle trail too!

 

Our local authorities are strapped for cash and budget constrained, but there is a clear case for finding a way to get the new link road in place before more new houses are built. The will get the money back from the developers, and the benefits will be significant.

 

The alternative of building hundreds more houses and relying on Secmaton Land and Elm Grove Road would be at best unpleasant, congested, polluted and just nasty, and at worst an accident waiting to happen.