“The coastal towns in Teignbridge comprise Teignmouth and Dawlish which are situated on the eastern boundary of the district. These historic seaside towns are the district’s second and third largest settlements and provide a good range of services and facilities for their communities. They have limited employment opportunities however, and are popular commuter towns to Exeter, supported by mainline railway connections which help promote sustainable travel to the city.
Both towns are primarily accessed by the A379 which runs parallel to the coastline and feeds into Exeter. There are constraints at various points along the route, including an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in Teignmouth and bottlenecks in some of the villages between Dawlish and Exeter. Options to improve capacity are very limited and recent trials to address issues have not been successful.
Additional growth on the edges of Teignmouth is highly constrained by topography, strategic cirl bunting breeding territories and access, with all routes feeding into Bitton Park Road where the AQMA is designated.
The coast of Teignbridge is protected by the ‘Undeveloped Coast’ policy EN2, which extends up the Estuaries.
Dawlish has seen significant growth in recent years, with a strategic development at Secmaton Lane (extant Policy DA2) currently under construction. There are potential future options for further growth in the town, mainly in the north, however the entirety of this area is designated as a Critical Drainage Area (CDA) and sites would be subject to sequential testing. The CDA has been designated by the Environment Agency due to flood risk following prolonged or intense rainfall when the Shutterton Brook is unable to drain to the estuary via its outfall due to ‘tide lock’ conditions. In ‘tide lock’ conditions, flood risk is dependent upon runoff volumes in the Shutterton Brook and the availability of flood water storage capacity at Dawlish Warren. These risks will increase significantly in line with predicted climate change and sea level rise. Currently, there is insufficient information to agree how this flood risk can be appropriately managed and without an identified solution there is no guarantee that sites within the CDA would be deliverable within the plan period.
For these reasons combined, this plan makes no further residential allocations for either Dawlish or Teignmouth. It is anticipated that further work will continue to better understand and resolve the issues currently preventing development as part of future plan preparation.
The 2014 Local Plan policies which allocated a significant amount of housing growth in Teignmouth and Dawlish, will remain in place via this plan as extant policies.”
From Page 156 Teignbridge Local Plan 2020 - 2040 Proposed Submission (Regulation 19) - January 2023
appendix-a-proposed-submission-local-plan-2020-2040.pdf (teignbridge.gov.uk)
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