£8m cost for rural lanes to absorb increased traffic after Line closure

THE cost of making narrow rural lanes suitable for the extra traffic likely to use them because of the devastated Slapton Line could be around £8 million.

- by BRADLEY GERRARD Local Democracy Reporter @[e-mail]

One of the country lanes that will see more traffic while the Slapton Line, main picture, is closed

(Office of Caroline Voaden MP)

With stretches of the A379 at Torcross swept away by the sea in the winter's storms residents can no longer use the coastal road to reach nearby villages and towns such as Slapton, Stoke Fleming, Strete and Dartmouth.

Motorists must now either reroute via Kingsbridge to Dartmouth or find their way through a maze of narrow, single-track rural lanes to reach their destination.

Residents have reported more congestion on these routes, with the vast increase in traffic due to the A379's closure making the lanes a major headache to navigate.

At a public meeting held by the area's MP, Caroline Voaden, it was suggested that improving the matrix of back lanes had been a notional “plan B” after previous incidents in which the Slapton Line had been damaged by storms, but no work was ever carried out.

Now Councillor Julian Brazil, the leader of Devon County Council, which is responsible for roads in the county, has said he believes the cost of making all the necessary improvements to the back roads to help improve traffic flow would be around £8m.

“Improvements would focus on passing places and visibility and treacherous cross roads,’ he said.