General Discussion

Town Council Opposed to new sea wall as it will ruin area.

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4 Posts

05 Jun 2020 06:54

Apparently a Town Councillor was interviewed by ITN West News yesterday and he advised that the Town Council believe that the proposed new sea wall will spoil the Town.

Has anyone seen the broadcast?
Why are our Town Councillors opposing a scheme that is the future life blood of the south west?

Lynne

05 Jun 2020 09:38

Just had a quick look at the minutes of Dawlish Town Council meetings since the beginning of the year. There was a Notice of Motion concerning this matter on the agenda back in January but the minutes say that this was deferred to another meeting. I cannot find any mention of this motion in the minutes of any subsequent town council meetings.

Can't find anything very recent on this subject when doing a search using ITV West CountyNews/Dawlish sea wall.

Seem to remember though that about a year or so back concern was expressed by some councillors not so much about the need for a new sea wall but rather its design.

Expressing concern about design of the wall is not the same as opposing the need for a new sea wall per se.

Lynne

05 Jun 2020 19:56

So I asked the town clerk if Dawlish Town Council had any policy concerning this matter and this is what I received in response.

PRESS RELEASE

5 June 2020

Network Rail - Coastguards to Colonnade Plans

Network Rail have recently published their rail resilience proposals for Coastguards to

Colonnade and will be submitting their plans to the local planning authority, Teignbridge

District Council at some point in June 2020.

As a statutory consultee, Dawlish Town Council through its Planning Committee will be

asked to consider and comment on the detailed proposals prior to being debated at a

meeting of Teignbridge District Council’s Planning Committee in the future.

On 4 June 2020, Councillor Gary Taylor was interviewed by ITV Westcountry where it was

intimated by the presenter that the Town Council believed the proposed structures could ruin

the area, with Councillor Taylor stating on air that he did not want to see the character [of

Dawlish] ruined.

The views expressed by Councillor Taylor were his own and not the Town Council’s which,

as a corporate body, is yet to consider the application.

All members of the Planning Committee approach applications of any nature with an open

mind and form an opinion once in receipt of the full facts and detailed plans as part of any

planning application.

Such a major application shall receive no less consideration when the detailed plans are

received.

The minutes of the meeting (date to be confirmed) will be available at

www.dawlish.gov.uk/meetings.php.

ENDS

Lynne

06 Jun 2020 15:13

Given that Cllr Taylor's name was mentioned in the above press release I thought I'd see if I could find anything by googling his name.

Found his facebook page. There is a recent thread on there concerning the latest proposals from network rail to revamp Dawlish station.

Seems to me from reading the thread that Cllr Taylor is expressing his disquiet concerning aspects of the proposed design and not to the revamping/replacement of the station per se.

So if I have understood his comments correctly then he is not "opposing a scheme that is the future life blood of the south west" (see first post of this thread) at all. He is expressing concerns that the proposed design and materials being suggested would not necessarily be of benefit to the town.

Two entirely different things.

click on this link to see what it is that is being proposed https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/western/south-west-rail-resilience-programme/dawlish-sea-wall-section-two

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