FEARS regarding the condition of a steep bank adjacent to one of the main entrances into Tavistock have sparked a disagreement over who owns the land. The bank towers high over the right hand side of the road from Tavistock towards Chillaton at Butcher Park Hill ? further to the right are the Butcher Park allotments, which are owned by the town council. Council works superintendent Wayne Southall last week told members of the council?s properties committee that there were worries about the safety of the cutting. He said: ?You are getting slippage there. It?s a steep face of about five to six metres ? we already get a lot of branches in the road there. It could be a danger to the public.? Mr Southall said the council had been alerted to the condition of the bank by one of the allotment holders. He visited the site and said the ?obvious signs? of slippage were enough to warrant a geo-technical survey of the bank, due to be carried out this week by local consultants Frederick Sherrell. The company had already carried out a brief visual inspection and agreed the soil of the bank was ?unravelling?. He told councillors the survey would cost £1,450 ? but if further work was required, it could cost anywhere between £45,000 and £70,000. But who would pay this sum was another matter, said Mr Southall. ?From our Land Registry plans there?s an actual line which basically show an old hedge at the top of the bank as some kind of boundary. The bank is on the other side of that boundary,? said Mr Southall. But members heard that John Coleman, the county?s area engineer, said the bank was not owned by the county council and claimed it belonged to Tavistock Town Council. ?As landowner it is your responsibility, not Devon County Council?s, to maintain this verge bank,? he told the council. Cllr Mandy Govier said the cost of the survey was not a problem and it was work that obviously needed to be done ? but there could be financial implications for the town if it revealed serious problems with the bank. ?The town council may have to take it on even though it doesn?t belong to us.? Cllr Govier said now the problem had been acknowledged, action had to be taken. ?Somebody has to act, we can?t spend time squabbling about it, but it?s a big decision for this council to find the money to do this ? it has become a priority and I want members to be aware we may have to find this money,? she said. The result of the geotechnical survey is expected around the middle of October.
