RESIDENTS in Dawlish, whose lives have been blighted for a decade by construction traffic, are to be relieved of the 100s of vehicle movements with the opening of a new link road.

The road was officially opened in March but construction vehicles are only now finally able to access the road to reach building sites.

The link road was promised 10 years ago when expansion to the north east of Dawlish began.

But after years of campaigning, the road is now open to construction lorries.

Cllr Rosie Dawson confirmed: ‘Construction traffic heading for Bloor Homes, Taylor Wimpey or MJL sites in the Gatehouse area will have to use the access on the new link road.

‘This will not yet be open to the general public yet as there are a couple of houses being built right by the access.’

Signage was due to be put in place.

The multi-million pound road is to access land for housing on the outskirts of Dawlish and ease traffic congestion in the town and along the A379.

Until now, 100s of lorries every day had been using Elm Grove Road to get to the sites, passing two schools and numerous residential properties along the way.

Since the recent closure of Elm Grove Road by South West Water as part of its multi-million pound project to improve water quality in Dawlish, the situation has been even worse as the lorries have been forced into other neighbouring residential streets.

MP Martin Wrigley, who as a councillor in Dawlish added to the campaign for the link road to open, welcomed what he described as a ‘significant event’.

He said: ‘Since Elm Grove Road was closed, it has been going around back roads and past the leisure centre so this is good news.

‘It has been a 10 year campaign to make this happen and has been an absolute nightmare for people for many years.’

Cllr Dawson has been in touch with site managers and will be keeping watch to ensure use of the link road is enforced.

Proposals for the road were first put forward when housing development was considered to the north east of the town more than 10 years ago.

It connects the A379 by Sainsbury’s to more than 400 new homes at Secmaton Farm and Swan Park and providing access to approximately 400 new homes at Gatehouse Farm. 

Eventually it will be open to the public and bus services to ease congestion in other parts of the town and along the A379.

The 26m bridge, 110m of carriageway on an embankment includes footways and cycleway and a further 360m of carriageway.

In March, a bridge was officially opened, named Sweet Violets Bridge to commemorate the town’s historic violet industry.

But is has taken a further five months for it to finally be open to through traffic.