General Discussion

For years, this street has been crying out with unfulfilled potential.

If I was Mayor, i'd pedestrianise it. Get some open air cafes and restaurants.

If necessary widen the Strand to improve 2-way traffic flow.

Would be nice to ban traffic in the Strand not double it !!!. why is the car so important ? ..wish people would not be so proud and go by bus or walk ..you have to if you don't drive ! Before you say you have to. you have to change your life style if you can't drive.
Emergency vehicles and delivery lorries early in the day should only be aloud in the Strand. People find a way out of town when it's blocked up in the summer...so go that route.

I agree entirely, which is why I am part of the regeneration group. However there are some real obstacles to progress in Dawlish - the local shops/cafes will continue as they are while people still buy from them and eat there. The problem is that they are geared toward summer visitors, and, it has to be said, some of them (the shops)seem to think the customers taste is less discerning than it probably is.
With a bit of imagination Dawlish could be a fantastic place but archaic and blinkered business interests are holding it back.

There's that hairpin bend adjacent to HSBC that is bad for pedestrians, bad for cars and impossible for long trucks.

That's as bad a traffic snarl-up as anything here in Asia - and i've been up the Ramkhamhaeng Road this morning.

Solution: Close that chicane completely and put a road where the (former) Lanhearne was linking the Jet Garage* with railway station.

*Probably rebranded now.

Senior Citizens don't want to live in Lanhearne anyway, the apartments are badly configured - and Catch 22 - they can't get to the shops easily because of the road.

That idea has been suggested before. Obviously it would involve knocking down those flats. Where would the station car park be sited if your suggestion was put into practice?

The station car park extends about 70 metres back - there would still be plenty of space.

I'm not advocating bringing the new road down through the car park - its trajectory would come down the route of the staircase from Beech Street to Lanhearne. The only building in its way after that is (what used to be called ) Shapter's garage.

That doesn't sound a bad idea. I'll investigate further. Incidentally why are you bothering about Dawlish when you are in Thailand?!!!

I have lots of good ideas about Bangkok too, - but nobody listens to me over here.

The Governor of Bangkok is a friend's cousin. Perhaps we could get Dawlish twinned with Bangkok.....better then Carhaix.

(Could then have the Ladyboy Cabaret coming over to play the Shaftesbury Theatre)

That sounds like a brilliant idea. There are rumours of a Thai restaurant opening in Dawlish (instead of one of the hundreds of fish and chip shops) - many your idea might encourage more of this.
I have been in Dawlish for just over a year and its definitely stuck in a time warp! It still thinks its 1958.

How can anyone move to a place and then after only a year ...try to change everything? Surely you knew what it was like before you came? I would move out if I hated it so much.

Seems no matter what the business is ..everyone dislikes.
Open a shop and people say 'they won't do any good' and locals will certainly make sure they don't. Yet people complain about visitors. It's dead in the town today ..imagine it like this all year round !
Only pubs are supported ..what on earth does that say.
I can't count a hundred fish and chip shops ..can think of 4 ..only one of those I like ..do need a bit of choice.

I wish more would use this forum too ..but the fact they don't says something !

Yes it does say something indeed - that most people don't really care very much about improving their environment. I moved to Dawlish to be near the sea and Dartmoor and I also liked a lot about the town. But there is a lot about Dawlish that could be vastly improved - in fact a lot of locals say that it has been allowed to degenerate over the past few years. It means that its potential is at the moment udeveloped as it is catering for summer visitors from Dawlish Warren only. Lets get rid of the amusement arcade for a start. Its horrible.

so you'd take away the whole basis of Dawlish's industry just because it looks awful, if it hadn't been for tourism aprox. 100 yrs ago dawlish would still be a little fishing village located around the Parish church and a bloody great salt marsh by the sea!

1) Where were you born in Dawlish - Cottage Hospital?

2) Dawlish could evolve into a cool seaside town - like St Ives, Newquay, Fowey.

Wills and I and all our Hooray chums love to come down to the coast. Look out for me, yah! I'm the one wearing the jackboots.

technicaly i've lived in dawlish since i was 3 days old was born at the old maternity hospital in exeter, now it's a block of trendy flat's for imigrants from london with too much money who keep pushing up house prices down here.
Yes dawlish could evolve into newquay, etc but most of the boom's in newquay etc are because they look after their tourist rather than abuse them by caving their head's in with hammers (happened end of this summer - remember)also newquay etc have their own industry associated with the town's dawlish has never really had that aspect take off because even recent development plans for our attempt at a trading estate have been quashed, thanks to dare (ref shutterton redevelopment plans)maybe it's the same stagnant people that 'mindful' has problems with.