Dorothy Dawson of Belgrave Terrace, Teignmouth, writes:

I have had a look at the brief description on Teignbridge's website, bearing in mind that the full 'Vision' document is not scheduled to appear until Tuesday, 25th May.

I have two main criticisms of the Vision document as currently published. Firstly, the list of Teignmouth's strengths, which includes things like 'natural settings and views' and 'estuary and sea', misses out:

1) the historic railway line. This is a major feature of the coastline, it's all over YouTube (a worldwide publicity vehicle), and whenever a steam train goes through, whistling loudly, crowds gather to watch. How could they possibly miss it?

2) the local wildlife. Now that the seagull problem is being dealt with (hooray!), other species are becoming evident. Marine life includes dolphins, many species of fish, terns, black backed gulls, swans, ducks, oystercatchers (namesake of a thriving local business), egrets, cormorants, seals, starfish, and shellfish. On land, or rather on trees, Teignmouth has a thriving population of house sparrows which, the Council may not realise, are threatened in other parts of the UK and actually extinct in London, birthplace of the expression 'Cockney sparrow'. Unlike the rest of the UK, we also seem to have a good bee population (our fuschias hum with them in summer) and I have noticed several thriving butterfly colonies in the past, though this year their habitats have been ruthlessly destroyed by building. We also have dragonflies, at least where I live, and I've seen them over the Lido too. Again, how could they possibly not notice all this?

Secondly, the report's list of issues to be resolved is the sort of thing any reasonably observant person might notice on a casual walk round. For the record it is:

• Ageing public facilities

• Poor Highway gateways

• Tired retail environment

• Poor Station gateway

• Highway acting as a barrier

• Stagnant tourism demand

• The pier as weak focus on the promenade

• Sense of a places whose heyday has past.

I would point out that 'stagnant tourism demand' and 'sense of a places (sic) whose heyday is past' are comments rather than physical characteristics. None of the above qualifies as the real root of the 'stagnation' problem. The real reasons are:

1) The 'walkable' town centre simply is too small to absorb any more traffic. The Council may see this as a great opportunity to 'manage cars' by ramping up car park charges, eg £4 for a morning in Teign Street car park (this is nearly what it costs to park in Central London!), but I can assure them that visitors who have been ripped off in this fashion will not be back - I've heard them say so. So we do not need any more 'highway gateway' - the cars won't have anywhere to go when they get there. .

2) A lot of small businesses in the town centre, the creative ones like little clothes boutiques, jewellers and art galleries, are staggering under the burden of swingeing business rates. This works for big businesses like Boots and Superdrug, but these are not what attracts visitors to Teignmouth. The smaller more creative side of the town, which does draw in visitors, needs a better financial deal. I think that the 'tired retail environment' will then spruce itself up quite nicely without any more ado from the Council.

I telephoned Naomi Harnett at the Council and enquired how the Vision plan came about. Apparently it was after the 'Teignbridge Corporate Plan' of 2007, which sparked an invitation to tender for a 'holilstic' solution from consultants, won by a firm, let us call it TLC. Apparently they also consulted the local Green representatives, but if this is the case, how did the wildlife get left out of the Vision report?

At this stage I feel called to point out to the Council, that hiring a consultant is like hiring a lawyer - they are trained to find the most superficially attractive solution for you and the most lucrative solution for them. In the case of TLC, it has to be said that their concept of a 'holistic' approach is mistakenly focussed on the symptoms rather than the cause. The solution to Teignmouth's problems is to create parking space on the outskirts of town.

The solution is to develop Broadmeadow - really develop it, not just plaster on some extra bits - and add a nice big park and ride facility. Maybe even add a subway and footbridge to a jetty sticking out into the river, so a ferry could run up and down from the back beach. I attach a sketch of how this might look. If a large amount of public money is being made available, the first call on it has to be not dolling up the town centre, but cleaning up the remains of Broadmeadow's former rubbish tip, and possibly also moving the electricity substation so unhelpfully positioned next to what could be an attractive watercourse. Yes, it will be a huge and expensive operation, but if diggers and lorries are to be deployed, this is where Teignmouth's real problem is, this is what will put Teignmouth back on the map, and this must be the first move.

Sorting out Broadmeadow will:

- enable a free park and ride (or park and sail!) for visitors. Then can you have all the increase you want in town centre activity without choking the town centre with traffic - and it'll be a lot nicer without all the exhaust fumes

- allow the stream at Broadmeadow to be opened up and edged by park land, providing a priceless environmental resource for wildlife and human beings - allow an all-year swimming pool to be added to the Sports Centre, sparing the Lido from desecration and putting the Umbrella Fund to good use

- allow the construction of a supermarket/department store, for Teignmouth generally but also to save residents of West Teignmouth, Shaldon, Bishopsteignton etc having to fight their way into the town centre

- possibly allow the construction of a quality hotel. I attach a sketch plan showing where this might be located. It looks out over the park and from there over the river. There is a footpath leading to the proposed underpass, footbridge and jetty which I suggest

- provide a better environment, especially parking and access, for the small businesses at Broadmeadow.

Teignmouth townspeople, if you would like to see Broadmeadow regenerated, if you would like an indoor swimming pool, if you think a supermarket - and maybe even a department store - on the edge of town would be a good idea, if you would like a park and ride to keep visitor traffic out of town, please, please let the Council know before they fritter the money away on trivia. You can write to them, or you can email [email protected]">[email protected] or phone her on 01626 215833, or attend the discussion sessions on Wednesday 26th and one of the upcoming Saturdays. If we really are talking about millions of pounds, let's make sure that this time the money really is spent on sorting out the real problems, not just dolling up a town centre that nobody can get to.

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