I WAS saddened to see in last week's paper a reader mocking the consultants' report on the Tavistock Conservation Area.
This is a serious attempt to help the town give better protection to its fine old buildings and make the most of them.
The borough council was right to commission the report. It is needed for advice on how to attract more visitors to the town and how to make it a still more pleasant place to live in for those who come after us.
We need it too as the spring-board for a bid to the Heritage Lottery for up to £1-million to do some of the things that must be done to improve the town centre and its mediaeval structures.
Far too many are at present in a bad state of repair and must put off our visitors rather than encourage them to spend time (and money) in the town.
Your reader thinks it is 'Utopian' to keep cars away from the shopping streets, and I fear he may be right. But it was the consultants' job to remind us how off-putting to outsiders car parking in sensitive locations can be and to make us realise how ugly and neglected some of our much-loved old buildings and areas in the town appear to newcomers — and, of course, how awful the new public lavatories may look to non-residents.
There is a balance to be struck in Tavistock, as elsewhere, between the utilitarian and the beautiful. A few towns in England have got it right and retained their charm without losing their prosperity – but I can think of many that have failed dismally.
If the Heritage Lottery Fund bid succeeds, we have the chance to look for the right balance here. Doubtless there will be a long process of discussion and consultation during which a wide range of opinions will be considered before any specific plans are drawn up.
It was the consultants' task to describe what would help most to improve the beauty of the town centre; it will be the challenge of the town and borough councils to achieve the best answer to make a prosperous yet attractive town for the next generation of residents.
Dick Eberlie
6 Vigo Mews
Tavistock