TEIGNMOUTH councillors want to try to boost trade for retailers during the recession.

Their ideas include allowing coaches to travel down the Exeter road again, reducing or abolishing parking fees for coaches, and offering a free meal to the drivers to encourage them to bring day trippers to the resort.

Cllr Vince Fusco made an impassioned plea on behalf of the beleaguered small business people, faced with a double whammy of fewer customers and higher overheads, including an increase in business rates.

'Traders are suffering quite a bit, and the increase in business rates will mean an extra £500 a year for one shop,' said Cllr Fusco. 'This is a seaside resort, and most traders rely on summer takings to keep them going through the winter.

'Shops are closing down – we have already had four and that is just the start.

'It will mean more unemployment, and residents will have to travel out of town for some goods. And will holidaymakers want to come to a town with closed shops? This is very, very serious.

'The government should do more to help the thousands of small businesses. After all, they pour millions and millions into banks.'

Members emphasised that business rates were set by the government, and it was agreed to ask Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross to lobby Whitehall on the matter.

Cllr Sylvia Russell warned that the rates could be even higher after a revaluation of properties which the government was likely to put off until after the next general election. That could be a 'bombshell' waiting for them.

Cllr Martin Bladon thought they should come up with ideas to try and boost trade. He suggested asking for the ban on coaches travelling to Teignmouth from Ashcombe Cross via the Exeter Road, should now be relaxed.

'It was imposed many years ago, when lorries ran out of control and crashed on the steep hill, but no coaches were ever involved,' he said. 'They come down hills just as steep or steeper elsewhere without any problems.

'At the moment coaches just bypass Teignmouth on the way to Torbay, and we need to encourage them to come to Teignmouth as well.'

Cllr David Cox said if the traders offered meal vouchers to coach drivers, it might help lure them into the town with day trippers.

It was also agreed to contact Teignbridge to see if parking fees for coaches can be abolished or reduced. There was even a suggestion that the town council might be able to subsidise the cost of the parking.

Jimmy Wright, boss of Teignmouth-based Majestic coach tours, which organises holidays across Europe and the UK, said that allowing free parking for coaches in Teignmouth, and offering free meals to drivers, would definitely help.

'We bring in about 15,000 people a year on day trips from Torbay, and many other places offer free coach parking,' said Mr Wright. 'It might encourage other companies to come here, and if drivers were given a free meal, they are going to choose Teignmouth as a destination rather than somewhere that doesn't offer a meal.

'The drivers will always go to a motorway service area that offers them some incentive.

'I don't see that allowing coaches to come down Exeter Hill would make a great deal of difference, because the coaches want the quickest way to get to Torbay. But it wouldn't do any harm, and might encourage coaches from Exeter or elsewhere to look at Teignmouth as a day trip.'

Mr Wright also scotched rumours that he was negotiating to build a £4million 100 bedroom plus hotel at Eastcliff.

'Teignmouth does need a hotel of at least 100 bedrooms to attract coach trade, and I would be interested if a suitable site with planning permission could be found. But it is very doubtful that it would be allowed by the council.'

'I am certainly not in talks with anybody about it,' said Mr Wright, whose company owns a hotel in Torquay specialising in coach holidays, and has a contract with another hotel in the resort.