A SERIOUS traffic accident occurs on the A 386, closing the road for nearly eight hours ? not the six you mention ? between Horrabridge and Grenofen, and yet you lead with this headline: Traffic chaos clogs gateway.
This, to me, is mischief making, for surely the most important concern would be why the road was closed for so long.
The accident occurred on the Tavistock side of Horrabridge, so the authorities had to be positive and divert traffic on the main road. Sensible ? yes. But what are the options? Not many at all for any difficulty on the A386 north of Plymouth.
Now, Horrabridge can be difficult to negotiate even on a quiet day, so the eventual plan to restrict the flow to one-way by only allowing traffic from the Tavistock end was good in theory, but inevitably problems will arise.
But where was the traffic diverted from the A386 on to the Whitchurch-Horrabridge road? Not at Tavistock or through Anderton Lane into Whitchurch, but at Grenofen. So how does this clog the gateway? Without doubt, extra traffic used the gateway that day but only because strangers got lost and local people used local knowledge. The real problem was, in fact, Horrabridge!
Michael Webb
3 Grenofen Close
Grenofen