TEIGNMOUTH Town Council will write to the district council calling on it to work with them to get the footpath along Eastcliff Car Park reinstated.

At the town council’s full meeting, Cllr Dave Matthews said: ‘It was a shock to everyone when it was removed.’

Cllr Peter Phipps said it was not only the path that had been lost. The new layout of the car park meant that six coach spaces had been lost with the potential loss of up to 336 visitors to the town.

Town and district Cllr Alison Eden said she had been in touch with Teignbridge Council officers and was taking the matter up on behalf of the town after receiving many complaints. She invited people to email her their comments and she would pass them on and report back to the town council.

Cllr Joan Atkins said Teignbridge Council needed to come to the council to ‘explain this’, adding ‘No-one thinks this is right’. 56 extra parking spaces had been created in the Eastcliff car park to make up for the loss of the spaces when the Brunswick car park closed to make way for the proposed Premier Inn.

Saying she had received a lot of emails on the matter, Cllr Jackie Orme pointed out that unfortunately the path that people wanted reinstated had not been a right of way for more than 20 years so it would not be covered by the Public Highways Act.

But Cllr David Matthews said: ‘We should put our foot down and demand that the footpath is put back.’

‘We have been short changed over the buses too,’ he said. Adding that the car park should also offer single overnight stops for camper vans as it would be a good source of tourism money to the town.

At the start of the meeting resident Jeffrey Pocock had called on the council to get the path reinstated ‘as soon as possible’.

Cllr David Cox said ‘It is a very sad situation.’ He proposed sending a letter to Teignbridge Council from the town council asking for the path to be reinstated ‘and that we as a council will work with them to do it’.

This was agreed and Teignmouth Mayor Peter Williams took up Alison Eden’s offer ‘to get some answers’ and report back to the town council in due course.