CONTROVERSIAL plans to move the main railway line out to sea at Teignmouth have been put on hold by Network Rail.

The costly scheme would have seen the line re-aligned from the cliffs between Holcombe and Teignmouth and move it further out to sea - a plan which many residents feared would have a serious environmental impact on the stretch of coast.

However, the company has said that due to unprecedented public reaction to the multi-million pound scheme that they will be taking more time to consider plans and allow for more public consultation next year.More than 1,600 people responded to a six-week public consultation on proposals for the line between Parson’s Tunnel and Teignmouth, which is bordered by steep cliffs on one side and the sea on the other.The plans would see the track realigned to create space to stabilise the hazardous cliffs and protect the railway for future generations. A realigned coastal footpath would also be built, along with a new landward path and accessible footbridge across the railway.Earlier this year a second round of consultations, with revised plans that retained more of the beach and improved leisure access, saw nearly 3000 people attend 11 community events here the proposed scheme was viewed by public Network Rail now plans to refine the proposals after analysing the 1,605 responses from that second round. The consultation asked people to provide further comments on the plans and/or give feedback on how they could be improved.More than 2,100 comments were received on issues ranging from the construction timeline and impact on the environment to loss of heritage features and effect on the local economy.Mike Gallop, Network Rail’s director for the Western route, said: “We would like to thank everyone who responded – we have read and reviewed every single comment. We received some good and considered feedback which can positively influence our plans, and it is important that we get this significant scheme right.’“As a result of the feedback we are now refining the plans even further with a view to then sharing these revisions with the public next year. We’ll now spend the next few months working through this detail, once we have our refined plans we will schedule a further round of public consultation in 2021.’“This means that we won’t be applying for a Transport and Works Act order to seek consent for the scheme this year as we had previously indicated in early communications. We will only proceed to this stage when we’ve done this further work and engagement.” Network Rail will also be writing to 16,000 households within the consultation boundary, with a summary of the findings.Key findings from the 2020 consultation included: 73 per cent of people agreed/strongly agreed that this stretch of railway needs to be more resilient, with 13 per cent disagreeing/strongly disagreeing and 14 per cent undecided. 41 per cent of people agree/strongly agree with Network’s Rails proposals for improved resilience, with 51 per cent disagreeing/strongly disagreeing and eight per cent undecided. More than half (54 per cent) of people supported or strongly supported the creation of a new coastal path and amenity. The 2020 consultation saw an increase of more than 1,200 attendees and 1,100 responses from the 2019 events.