HAVING visited the presentation in the town hall regarding the proposed railway link to Tavistock on September 30, I have come down firmly on the side of Tavistock Town Council. If the price of the railway is 500 new houses, then this is too high a price to pay.

I have lived in Tavistock for 20 years. In that time the employment situation has more or less remained the same. It seems naive to bring another up to 1,000 adults into a town which does not offer them employment.

The presentation stated that new commercial ventures will be attracted to the town. If this were true why hasn't it happened before now? Building another 500 homes next to Abbotsfield will of course justify the railway — providing those people wish to travel to work each day — but it might equally result in a great many unemployed people living on the edge of town.

There is nothing for young people to do in Tavistock — if you have no money then you cannot afford to join the various sports clubs, go swimming or to the cinema. Surely this problem should be addressed before we consider bringing in yet more young people?

How much research has been undertaken into finding out how many people would actually benefit from the railway on a daily basis? How many people currently travel to the centre of Plymouth every day for work or to school? How many people would be likely to do this if the railway was available? What will it cost to travel on the train and how many times a day will it run — are we talking about a commuter service only? How many passengers will it need to carry on a daily basis to make it viable? Who will be responsible for paying for the upkeep of the railway once it has been built?

I fully understand that getting people off the roads and onto alternative transport has to be a good thing, but increasing the number of people who would have to use the road because, for whatever reason, they could not use the train, is surely not. Anyone needing to access the outskirts of Plymouth would probably continue to to by car.

The presentation states the population of Tavistock will increase over the next few years and therefore these new homes need to be built. Surely the population will only increase if the new homes are built? We are also told that affordable housing needs to be provided for local people — I completely agree with this, but why then is not a bigger percentage of the housing currently being built — and standing empty — not affordable?

Callington Road — already very busy — will become even more so and it is proposed that Crowndale Road become a major access road to the new estate. With the river and proposed new football development on one side and the college on the other, how is it proposed that it will be widened enough to take the increase in traffic? Having a proposed new primary school situated on the new estate can only increase the volume of traffic using these roads.

Tavistock is popular because of the way it is now — the only winners will be the developers who stand to make a very large amount of money.

Kate Camara

2 Dolvin Road, Tavistock