Dawlish News

The proposal to extend double yellow lines along Barton Terrace has raised serious concern among residents and business owners. The difficulty of finding parking already and the implications on safety are the main concerns.

Many residents have commented that parking acts as a natural speed control and by disallowing parking the result is going to be a faster and increased flow of traffic along the road. Those with families will not only have to deal with parking far from their own premises, they will have the extra burden of ensuring their children’s safety when leaving their property.

The council are notorious for getting things wrong when it comes to traffic control in Dawlish. The changes made to The Strand to allow parking on both sides of the road is a good example. Still it remains a thorn in every local’s side who has to navigate the road by car.

Businesses are concerned about the impact this may have on them. Many have residential homes or provide tourist accommodation, and to deny the ability for customers to park near to their premises is most definitely going to affect them. In particular, most residential homes accommodate the elderly and rely on external services such as physiotherapists, hairdressers, opticians, dentists and the like. Unless it is an emergency, which none of the mentioned services could be categorised under, then it is unlikely that such service providers would take on the extra hassle of having to park long distances from clients.

Many locals feel that the ideal solution to the problem would be to provide residential parking along with limited parking. This is in place in most major cities and works fine, so it seems the most logical solution to all of the residential and business parking problems in Dawlish.