DEVON County Council announced this week that it was to review the traffic situation on Crowndale Road, Tavistock, after management at the recycling site was once again thrown into the spotlight.

Over the past few months many local residents have slammed the traffic chaos that engulfs the road from queues at the recycling centre.

One post on Facebook over the weekend by a local councillor pictured a tailback of vehicles with people waiting a substantial amount of time to use the centre.

West Devon mayor and town councillor Jeff Moody highlighted the issue and said that there was a ‘continued problem’ and there ‘had to be a solution’ to queueing traffic at the centre, which in turn causes obstruction to through traffic to and from Bere Alston.

Tavistock resident Hugh Walkington also added on the social media site: ‘It’s a complete disgrace — and with the loss of free garden waste collection it will only get worse, unless something radical is done.’

In response, a spokesperson from Devon County Council said: ‘It’s recognised that the recycling centre at Crowndale does suffer from queueing during busy periods. Due to the old design of the site, it has to be temporarily closed for safety reasons when waste is being compacted and containers exchanged.

‘The site contractor is encouraged to load as much as possible before the site opens to the public at 9am but waste has to be moved from site regularly to prevent it running out of capacity. We’ve tried to mitigate queueing by installing warning signs on the highway and establishing a queueing lane on the site, which can keep around ten vehicles off the highway.

‘A bigger, more modern facility would be needed to segregate public areas from the plant and containers to keep the site open while containers are being moved.

‘Recycling centres in Sidmouth and Ivybridge suffered similar queueing issues before being upgraded over the last few years and Tavistock will be considered for modernisation in our next review of recycling centres later this year, although funds are not currently available for such a scheme.’

Cllr Moody said: ‘I think everyone is aware that the situation at Crowndale is not working the way it should and not fit for purpose but it’s good news that the county council has got this on the list of things to review.

‘It will be a long term issue but what is necessary now is for some traffic management as this happens too regularly. As a borough councillor my concern is if this causes people to fly tip as it it will be West Devon Borough Council that has to pick up the tab.

‘It’s great that county is taking it seriously but in the meantime what are the short term arrangements to deal with the traffic management?’