TEIGNBRIDGE district councillor Phil Bullivant made it clear this week that the link road between the A382 Newton Abbot-Ashburton road and the A383 Newton Abbot-Bovey Tracey road, was a key part of Devon County Council’s highway plans.

The road costing around £7 million will link the new development on the former Hele Park Golf Course and Houghton Barton through to Forches Cross.

‘This project is vitally important to the residents of Highweek Village as it will provide the traffic relief desperately needed in the village,’ he said.

Cllr Bullivant, who is a member of the Highweek Residents’ Association Committee, said people had been concerned after reading of the county council’s £28 million plans for improvements to the A382 and no mention of the link road.

He explained that stage one of the overall plan involved the A382 improvements between the Newton Abbot Hospital and Forches Cross. Stage two would be the link road project and stage three the A382 improvements from Forches Cross to Drumbridges.

Cllr Bullivant said all the money for the schemes was in the county council coffers.

The timescale would depend on the purchase of land from the landowners and it was planned to start stage one in 2018, work on which would take 12-18 months.

It was estimated work on the link road would begin in 2020, and stage three would follow in 2021-2022.