JOHN E MITCHELL, of Manor View, Bradley Vale, Newton Abbot, writes:

My wife and I moved to Newton Abbot from Middlesex more than 28 years ago. The contrast between the charming market town and Greater London was amazing, and we counted ourselves lucky that we were able to move to such a wonderful part of the country.

However, things cannot stay the same and today the 'charming market town' of Newton Abbot is nothing more than a noisy, fume-filled urban sprawl that suffers from traffic congestion for all of the working day plus an hour or two at either end. Do we enjoy a modicum of relief at the weekends? No, we certainly do not; in fact the congestion is likely to be worse on a Sunday than it is at mid-week.

Some months ago I was staying at a hotel at Manchester Airport and got talking to a fellow resident. When asked 'Where are you from?' I replied 'Newton Abbot, in Devon.' 'Oh!' he said. 'Where the traffic jams are!' The gentleman in question came from Kendal in Cumbria. It is pleasing to know that the fame of Newton Abbot has travelled so far, however it is not so pleasing to appreciate the reason for this 'fame'.

We hear so much from our town council, and even more from Teignbridge Council, about our bustling market town and the various successes that it enjoys.

In my view, the traffic chaos in Newton Abbot will be the death of this town.

There are talks about large housing schemes near Kingsteignton and at the Seale-Hayne campus. There could be in the region of 800 houses shared between these two sites at either end of our town. It is obvious that our road system cannot cope with the traffic on it at the moment, but 800 houses will bring another 1,000 cars, and where will they go?

It is apparent that Newton Abbot's traffic congestion problem is totally ignored by the town council which is virtually powerless when it comes to roads and traffic matters, Teignbridge Council which would deny a traffic jam ever existed if it suited its purposes, and Devon County Council which wants us all to share cars and ride bicycles along a cycle path from Lustleigh to Moretonhampstead that will never be completed even though £2 million has been allocated to it from the highways budget!

I would like to invite Newton Abbot Town Council, Teignbridge Council and Devon County Council to outline their road and traffic plans for Newton Abbot in the short, medium and long terms. I am sure that the editor of this good newspaper will be pleased to allocate space to such important and newsworthy material.

I am looking for a concerted plan to relieve Newton Abbot of its traffic problems. I want to hear what is being planned to reduce the pollution of traffic noise and traffic fumes by lessening the volume of traffic currently forced to drive through Newton Abbot's overcrowded roads.

I want Newton Abbot to thrive, I want businesses to be successful, I want people to look forward to visiting our town – not do their best to avoid it.