FEARS about safety have been raised by residents of Marine Parade, Dawlish, after the introduction of a new car-parking scheme.
Parking in the road used to be parallel but was changed three weeks ago to echelon and residents are now worried about their health and the safety of their children.
Dave and Helen Reed have lived in the road for six years and have five young children. They are now concerned as the way the cars reverse out of the spaces presents a danger to their children who play in their front garden – the only garden they have. They are also worried with the amount of pollution due to the cars always having their exhausts pointed towards the houses. They say that when the cars reverse, exhaust fumes sometimes come into the house if the doors are left open.
Mrs Reed said: 'There are three things that my husband and I are really concerned about. One, now that all of the cars are directing their exhaust on to where we sit outside on our decking, we get pollution. Two, the way the cars have to reverse out of the spaces means that they reverse virtually on to our drive where our children play as that is the only outside space we have and thirdly, when all the spaces are full, I can't get my buggy between the cars to the pavement. This means I have to walk up the road about 80 metres to where I can.
'We never had any of these problems before the parking changes.'
Another resident, Patricia Grogan, said:
I have a disabled husband who likes to sit outside on a nice day and all he gets now is a face full of fumes. Like Helen, I have to walk up the road to where I can gain access.'
Local service officer, Andrew Butler said: 'In concern of these views I have secured the views of the Devon County Council laboratory and Teignbridge Council Environmental Health Office. They anticipate that the limited number of additional parking spaces and associated traffic movements would not add significantly to the pollution at Marine Parade.
'With regard to safety, all designs for highway schemes are subject to a safety audit during development and no significant risks to highway users were identified during the audit for the scheme at Marine Parade.'
Cllr John Clatworthy of Dawlish said: 'I would not support any scheme which was not safe and Devon County Council would not promote an unsafe scheme.