UNBELIEVABLE is probably the word best used to describe my first experience of attending the DCC Highways and traffic orders committee, (HATOC), actually disgusted and disbelieving may be better, writes Cllr Jane Taylor.

If this is how decisions are made, that significantly affect people’s livelihoods, then as my Granny May would have said, ‘I’ll go t’foot of our stairs’ - actually I’m more likely to throw myself down them.

I’m getting slightly ahead of myself so let’s start at the beginning. Today [June 1] the HATOC meeting was being held at Forde House, in the TDC Chamber. The Committee is made up of select councillors, mainly Lib Dems and as of today chaired by the TDC Lib Dem Leader, Cllr Martin Wrigley. The subject for debate and approval was the Pedestrianisation of Queen Street and associated Traffic Orders etc.

To remind you, if you are not aware, this is a Lib Dem project, led by the ex-leader of the Lib Dems, Cllr Alan Connett, he did not stand for TDC this time but still sits on this committee in his capacity as a DCC Councillor. I hope you are keeping up.

As a TDC councillor, I am allowed to speak for five minutes but not take any other active part, other than raising my eyebrows or other non-verbal communication and neither do I have voting rights, that is left to our SDA County Councillor, Janet Bradford. Myself, Cllrs Alex Hall, Mike Ryan and Mike Joyce all spoke on the matter.

It was Cllr Hall who stole the show delivering a particularly passionate plea on behalf of local people and traders, whose voices had been ignored. They were not against improvement but they were against this proposal.

Newton Abbot Town Council, had consulted for almost two years, since this was first muted. They had consulted, consulted and consulted with residents, face to face, at meetings, at information stalls, set up to make residents aware and they listened to them. It was blatantly clear, they did not want this scheme. Cllr Connett’s response was ‘The Town Council need to suck it up.” Unfortunately, I was not witness to that outburst as I’d already walked out as a result of the previous one.

I raised the issue of the consultation: in total the consultation period was less than three months, a month in 2020 and two last year. Torbay Council, consulted for six months on the Paignton Pedestrianisation, which has now been overturned and will be consulting again for another six months to try and get it right.

How much will that cost the taxpayer? I asked if anyone had contacted Torbay, after all we wouldn’t want to make the same mistake. That didn’t get a response.

There was no face to face Consultation, it was done mainly online and the addition of an unmanned table in the library, displaying information. They seemed quite proud that they had sent 1,000 letters to residents, I had to remind them that they had missed some, as there are roughly 132,884 residents in Teignbridge!

Its just not good enough, even our small parish of Kingskerswell did better. When TDC refused to do anything other than a online consultation for the Local Plan, we had printed and hand delivered 3,000 leaflets to our parishioners to make them aware of it , so they could have their say and they did!

They hadn’t even listened to what Sally Henley had to say. Sally’s the Town Centre Manager, the clue’s in the name for goodness sake! They’ve ignored the Town Council and their own councillors,– Liam Mullone and Janet Bradford but then they would because they are ex-Newton Says No and South Devon Alliance members.

Cllr Connett made it very clear what he thought of Newton Says No to everything and proceeded to spew forth his obvious hatred for the party and all it stands for. He could barely contain himself and spilled over into shouting abuse. At that point I had enough and stood up, told the Chair he should be ashamed of himself and left the chamber.

The proposal was voted through with only one vote against, or should I say one vote FOR the people, thank you SDA Cllr Janet Bradford. Although I did feel slightly sorry for Cllr Ron Peart, who stated he had gone there with an open mind, so not predetermined like the rest of them, and was clearly uncomfortable with the ‘goings on’ but had to vote with the whip, he should have joined the SDA!