TAVISTOCK Chamber of Commerce is calling for more alterations to the town centre in an effort to boost trade.
The chamber has written to the county's highways department, concerned about the effect of last year's enhancement work in Bedford Square — particularly referring to the lack of visiting coaches.
The chamber's new chairman, Barry Highfield, said two factors prompted the letter.
'Firstly, if you get a coach trying to deposit people it goes round to park by the Bedford Hotel.
'It means elderly travellers have two main roads to cross before making it to the square,' said Mr Highfield. He added that the raised crossings across the square were not safe as it was not clear whether pedestrians or drivers had right of way.
Mr Highfield said coach drivers also have difficulty turning around the mini-roundabout at the northern end of the square.
'There just isn't room,' he said.
'It used to be a perfectly satisfactory place to turn round — we felt it wasn't beyond the wit of man to have that happen again.'
Mr Highfield suggested removing a section of the new paving, allowing coaches room to U-turn at the roundabout.
He said the chamber did not want the square ripped up, just altered.
'It's not all doom and gloom, but clearly the handling of coaches is less easy than it was, and if there are one or two things to do to make the whole thing easier, then so much the better,' said Mr Highfield.
'We are asking for compromise, not complete change.'
He also thought the square itself needed brightening up as soon as possible.
'If every other town of any size can produce flowers and look after them, then for goodness sake, Tavistock better get on with it,' he said.
The town council's properties committee discussed the chamber's letter at their meeting last week.
Mayor Roger Mathew said: 'Chickens are coming home to roost here.
'We always thought the D at the north end of the square was inappropriate — I think this gives us an opportunity to remind the borough and highways authority this was our point of view.'
Cllr Norma Woodcock said: 'Some people will say "I told you so", but the letter is a genuine attempt to rectify something which is not working.'
The council agreed to write to the county and borough council in support of the chamber's comments.
David Incoll, chief executive at the borough, said the chamber's proposals would be put to the Bedford Square monitoring group, which was set up to see how the new layout worked and if any changes were necessary.
'Obviously we need a highways point of view before members can discuss it,' he said.
Mike Parnell, local services officer for the county, said the authority was considering changing signage in the square to improve the situation for coaches.
'Simple things can make a big difference, but at this stage we are not into digging things up,' he said.
Mr Parnell said the chamber's suggestion to alter the square lay-out would not be possible for safety reasons.
'I know there are concerns that some coaches are not coming to Tavistock — people are giving all sorts of reasons why.
'It's very easy to point the finger at something new — people need to allow the scheme to settle down, and work hard at encouraging coaches back, if they have gone away,' he said.
The controversial enhancement scheme, which extended the paved area in front of the town hall, was completed last summer.