Torbay Council criticised over road closure

2,000-strong petition collected

Torbay Council has been criticised over its handling of the controversial temporary closure of Brixham Road.

In January, the road was closed between Windy Corner and the junction at Goodrington and Long Road for development work.

The planning inspectorate, which is part of the department for levelling up, pushed the development through two years ago, forcing the road closure, Torbay Council “reluctantly” agreeing to it less than a month before work began.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday [7 March] Torbay resident Andrew Strang brought a petition signed by nearly 2,000 people which was originally put together last year.

His intention at that time was to convince the council to try to overturn the closure, but because of cancellations of council meetings, the petition was not heard until this week. Instead, as the closure is nearly over, Mr Strang asked the council to investigate what he felt was poor handling of the situation.

He claimed the council should have done more to address the public’s concerns, such as carrying out traffic surveys and economic impact reports. He said that it was “more luck than judgement” that travel times and the impact on businesses has not been as bad as first feared.

Independents Cllrs Darren Cowell (Shiphay) and Jackie Stockman Furzeham with Summercombe) said the inspectorate’s decision was not in the council’s hands, so there was nothing they could do to stop it.

“I sat through the whole seven days of the appeal, and never once was the closure of the road known or brought forward,” claimed Cllr Stockman. “Not once.”

They therefore recommended that no investigation be carried out.

But Conservative leader Cllr David Thomas (Preston) urged the council’s leadership to learn lessons from its mistakes.

“That’s all Brixham residents are asking for,” he said. “Nothing more, nothing less. They’re not asking, ‘can we have £500 per businesses that have been affected?’ They’re just asking please have a review.”

Cllr Nick Bye (Conservative, Wellswood) said the decision not to investigate is “absolutely an insult to the people of Brixham.”

“If you want nothing done, this council are the people to ask,” he added.

But Cllr Swithin Long (Liberal Democrat, Barton with Watcombe) insisted that the council did listen to concerns and achieved “much mitigation,” such as shortening the road closure from seven to three months and providing free bus passes.

The majority of councillors voted against an investigation into the ring road closure and no further action will be taken.