TAVISTOCK Town Council is not making any hasty decisions regarding its land at Pixon Lane where the town?s parking group and borough council officers would like to see a 200-space car park. Advice from the council?s surveyor is being sought before the idea is discussed at a future meeting, despite pressure to seek support for the scheme in principle. At a meeting of the full town council last week, West Devon Borough Council?s community director of services David Inman, who is a member of Tavistock Parking Focus Group, said the borough council would meet the costs of the proposal estimated at £100,000. Mr Inman said figures indicated there would be a 35% increase in car ownership in the next ten years and with car parks in Tavistock reaching capacity, now was the time to think about how these extra cars could be catered for. He said the town was fortunate in having 600 off-street car parking spaces and 400 on-street spaces, but in order for the town to keep prospering something needed to be done. Various other options had been looked at, including putting a deck on the Bedford Car Park, a car park in the Meadows and a park and ride facility but these were either unsuitable, too costly or not viable. A car park at Pixon Lane would involve levelling, tarmacing, kerbing and some lighting which would improve the area, said Mr Inman. He said there would be free parking for cattle market traders and all neighbourhood rights would be maintained. The town council would be able to ?cash in its chips? if it wanted to use the area as a development site at a later stage, the only risk being it would have to pay back the £100,000. Mr Inman said it was a ?win, win, win? situation for the town. The meeting was told that Riverside Car Park, which was once underused, was now often 60% full and at times full to capacity ? this being an indicator of how many more cars there were coming into town. Car parking charges in Pixon Lane would be on a par with the Riverside ? £1.20 for 24 hours. Mr Inman said he expected there to be a deficit in the first few years but the borough council would meet that deficit. ?We would be looking at providing that car park in 2008 or maybe before because there are signs that the town is beginning to creak in terms of car parking capacity,? he said. Cllr Peter Jones asked what was going to make people use a car park in Pixon Lane, which was further away from the town centre, when they could park for free in the middle of Tavistock. Mr Inman said motorists were changing their parking habits and the borough council was trying to be ahead of the game. A cheap car park could also free up on-street parking for shoppers in the town centre, which would be good for commerce. He added that on-street parking meters were not appropriate for a market town like Tavistock, but it could happen in the future. On-street parking was the responsibility of the county council. Town councillors agreed it would be foolish to jump into something before talking with their surveyor in terms of what the land was worth and what other uses it could have.
