Two-way traffic is to be allowed back into Golden Mile - a busy Devon tourist street known for its multitude of gift shops, cafes and bars. It brings to an end 18 months of wrangling over the future of Torbay Road in Paignton since the council’s previous Lib Dem/Independent administration started a pedestrianisation trial after a public consultation backed it.
Furious traders said their businesses were suffering and demanded the return of traffic – and Conservative candidates promised to do that if elected to run the council. Last May they were, and now traffic is returning. It is estimated that the trial has so far cost the council up to £400,000.
Torbay Road is to re-open fully to two-way traffic after Easter. Deputy council leader Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) announced on Facebook: “Yes we are opening the road as soon as possible, returning it to how it was – we have listened and will deliver.”
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And leader David Thomas (Con, Preston) told the BBC: “We have consulted literally with thousands of people. We are re-opening Torbay Road in both directions.”
Of course, while some people will be delighted at the news, others less so. And it comes as £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash flushed away down the blue ‘paddling pool’ painted in the middle of the road, as the editor in a leader column in our sister print title the Herald Express writes.
They add that while councillors have made good on that promise, but in so doing have achieved absolutely nothing. And already there are claims the most recent U-turn to fully reverse the initial plan has been made without due democratic process, with more than a hint of political grandstanding involved too.
Read the full leader column below
There’s a new chapter in the ongoing Torbay Road melodrama.
Eighteen months after a plan to improve the area was announced and put out to a public consultation and a trial pedestrianisation scheme implemented as a result, those changes have been incrementally undone to the point we will soon be back at square one.
Most of the street’s traders will be happy; those that wanted the changes less so.
The cost of this slow-motion car crash is £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash flushed away down the blue ‘paddling pool’ painted in the middle of the road.
And already there are claims the most recent U-turn to fully reverse the initial plan has been made without due democratic process, with more than a hint of political grandstanding involved too.
The idea for improving Torbay Road surfaced way back in 2015 but it was only after Paignton secured £13.36 million of Future High Streets Funding from the Government in 2020 to kick-start the transformation of the town centre that concrete plans began to take shape.
Some £3m of that funding was allocated for a combined project to revitalise Torbay Road and Station Square. Proposals were developed to create a town centre with less traffic and pollution and more sociable areas for residents and visitors to safely walk down the town’s ‘Golden Mile’ to the seafront.
Three options for Torbay Road were presented, ranging from partial to full pedestrianisation and, after a public consultation, most respondents favoured the latter. As a result cars were banished from Torbay Road in October 2022 as part of an initial three-month trial. As soon as that happened and the impact of the changes become clearer, the dissenting voices, mainly from traders on the street, rose to fever pitch.
Latching on to this discontent, the Conservatives made it a manifesto promise that if they won last year’s local council elections, which they narrowly did, they would undo the changes brought in by the former ruling coalition of Lib Dems and Independents.
They have made good on that promise, but in so doing have achieved absolutely nothing. It appears this decision was made behind closed doors by Torbay Council’s cabinet, made up entirely of Conservatives, and not subjected to any sort of scrutiny, opening the door to claims the council is a dictatorship.
Writing in his column in this newspaper, Torbay Council leader Dave Thomas says a decision had to be made before the funds would have to be returned. He admits there are many differing views on the subject but says “60%-70%” of the people canvassed by the Conservatives wanted the road back the way it was.
Whatever comes next, with in all likelihood the road remaining open for its entire length, points to a ‘tinkering around the edges’ philosophy which falls far short of the transformative ambition that was first envisaged at the outset. Progress is often made when those in power are confident enough to take brave and unpopular decisions for the long-term greater good, and then seeing it through even in the face of adversity.
A retreat to the familiar implies stagnation, not at all what that £100 million in Government funding destined for the bay was intended to deliver. Paignton and Torquay are in dire need of regeneration but half-hearted attempts will not bring about the transformation of the town centres the bay’s residents desperately need and deserve.
It would be interesting to see whether this U-turn will in any way affect similar plans in Newton Abbot to pedestrianise Queen Street. Here Teignbridge District Council seems intent on pressing on regardless, again with Government funding, in the face of similar opposition from traders in the street and the town council.
Will it stay the course?
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