Youth Inclusion Programmes

I am appalled that Conservative led Devon County Council will be cutting the Youth Inclusion Programmes (YIP) in West Teignmouth on 31 March.

I understand the great pressure upon the council’s finances at this time; however this cut is really stupid and a false economy. Projects like the YIP that improve the life-chances for young people, more than payback their cost in the long run. What is the cost to society of having someone on benefits for most of their life, what is the cost to society of someone in and out of prison? The YIP programme lived up to the promises made at the launch, with a significant drop in crime and anti social behaviour, and young people supported into gainful employment or training.

West Teignmouth is one of the most deprived wards in Devon according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The YIP built on, and gave depth to the outstanding work of PC Colley and his Neighbourhood Police Team, TCA, Teign Housing, and many others, in dealing with West Teignmouth’s problems. It is very sad that the hard work of these people should be undermined in this way.

More Parking Spaces

Up to fifteen, desperately needed, new parking spaces have recently been created in Teignmouth Town Centre, simply by re-jigging some of the town’s existing parking bays.

Chris Bray and I noticed last year that some of the existing parking bays around the town did not make the best use of the road space available. So armed with a tape measure and 'Manual for Streets' , we set out to drawn up plans to create more parking and put our ideas to the Highways Authority. We're delighted to see that our proposals have now resulted in approximately seven extra spaces being created in Carlton Place and with a similar amount of additional spaces being formed in other parts of the town.

It all started when whilst walking through Carlton Place I noticed that even with cars parked on either side of the street there was still enough room for lorries to pass with ease, and I remembered from my childhood, that the road was originally a two-way street. It struck me that the parking spaces parallel to the Riviera building were a throw back from that time and hadn’t been up-dated when the road became a one-way street a several decade ago. Chris and I then looked for other areas to create more parking and found

Of course we realise that this isn’t going to resolve all of Teignmouth’s parking issues, however the new parking bays will give Teignmouth over a dozen extra spaces from virtually thin air, and at the negligible cost of painting few lines; that's got to be a positive result.