A BMX track would be an excellent facility for young people of Tavistock and it is admirable that a group of young people, Tavi Riders, are working hard to achieve this.

However, the proposed site in the park off Drake Road (opposite Bannawell Street) is a totally inappropriate site, for the following reasons:

Access is on a very busy and dangerous stretch of road. Children approaching from Bannawell Street with their BMX bikes would be particularly vulnerable. The dangers would be exacerbated with parents delivering their children and bikes to the site by car.

The site is in a residential area with houses in Buddle Close, directly overlooking the site and gardens actually abutting the site. Residences in Russell Court are extremely close and I know that several elderly residents are extremely worried about the proposal.

The BMX track would be open all hours of the day and night without supervision and open to all users legitimate and otherwise (possibly including motorcyclists). However well intentioned Tavi Riders are, the noise generated is likely to be unacceptable.

The site is currently used by a wide range of people, for example, picnickers, parents playing ball games with their children, dog walkers, sunbathers, Tai-chi practitioners and people wanting to do no more than simply wander around in the generally tranquil and rather beautiful surroundings.

Is it right that a much valued faculty on this side of town should be scarred with the hills, dips and dirt tracks of a BMX circuit and handed over to a minority interest?

It would appear that there are much more suitable sites for a BMX track in non-residential areas and with safer access. Have Tavi Riders made any serious research into the possibility of using land in the Crowndale area, which can be accessed from cycle tracks? Have they enquired if Tavistock College has land which they could use? What about part of the Meadows, say, where the fairground was? Or Benson's Meadow? Or was the Bannawell site the easiest rather than the most considered option?

Paul Harrison

25 Buddle Close

Tavistock