Ms Saxby has released the summary of her survey which clearly shows the level of congestion and inconvenience has dramatically increased as well as sharing potential solutions, which include opening the Old Torrington Road bus gate.
Selaine said:
“My particular frustration with the Cedars scheme is that no one was aware before the sign went up announcing the roadworks how long it would take, or the huge amount of poorly planned disruption that would be unleashed. Whilst staff running the lights have done a fantastic job, why on earth in this day and age can we not have planned the traffic and have an automated system?
It was wrong that the proposed solution to this situation was to suggest that residents of North Devon “worked from home” on a road that has schools and Petroc on it, as well as being a route for many to get to the hospital. And it is wrong that no alternative traffic planning was considered, with rat runs now being monitored by the police, the Old Torrington Road bus gate not reopened, and this all happening at the same time as the overrunning Link Road project.
All road improvements come with disruption, however, when a project is likely to have as marginal a benefit as this one, residents’ voices should have been heard far earlier as to whether the disruption outweighed the potential benefit. North Devon frankly deserves better and I am deeply dismayed at how our community has been treated through this project and that no compensation has been offered to the businesses whose livelihoods have suffered as a result of these roadworks.”
Within the responses when asked if they think the proposed measures at the Cedars Roundabout will make much difference, the greatest majority (324 out of the 701 who answered the question, or 46%) said ‘no’. The second highest majority (176, or 25%) said ‘hopefully, but the money could have been spent better’.
Question 7 on the survey stated ‘Developers provide funding (S106) for infrastructure, in Cedars case over £800,000. Some changes would not cost vast amounts of money. Some of the ideas below have been suggested, would you like these possibilities to be looked into?’. The ideas offered included a) stopping cars parking on the main road in Bickington, b) stopping cars parking on the main road in Sticklepath, c) opening up the Old Torrington Road Bus gate to help traffic flow away from Cedars, d) more work at Wrey Arms roundabout as that is where the problem is and e) permanent traffic lights at Cedar. Of the 553 who answered this question, the greatest majority (239, 43%) voted for ‘opening up the Old Torrington Road bus gate to help traffic flow away from Cedars’.
Ms Saxby added:
“I very much hope new leadership at Devon County Council will see urgent steps taken to better join up how our road network is managed and that we will not see a repeat of the traffic chaos inflicted on residents again. This is not about money, this is about planning and consideration of the economic disruption to North Devon from projects that were barely consulted on at the time. Had the whole project been better planned, so much economic damage would not have been done.”
