IT is sad to see the Dolvin Road parking issue rearing its disagreeable head yet again. Unless the Abbey Rise car park can be shown to be so full that the residents' permits regularly block spaces that would otherwise be available to paying customers, the concession costs nothing. I see no such evidence: the car park is seldom full, save for short periods when few residents are likely to be using it.
At the very least, West Devon Councillors should demand hard evidence and defer a decision until a robust survey has been conducted to establish this specific issue unequivocally.
West Devon Councillors last voted down a similar proposal to withdraw the concession from new residents whilst I was a councillor. I note that our local members, speaking in the town council, have expressed themselves strongly in that vein. One must hope that they will express themselves as forcibly when West Devon Borough Council meets to vote on it; and that their colleagues will take a lead from them (as they did last time) and vote down this mean-minded little effort to screw a few more pounds out of Dolvin Road's future residents, to the disproportionate detriment of present ones.
Roger W Mathew
Willowby
Down Road
Tavistock