South Hams Friends of the Earth

Introduction

There have been concerns over traffic in Fore Street and High Street in Totnes for as long as anyone can remember. Huge lorries thunder through the ancient heart of the town and cars race through on a rat run making a stroll through the town unpleasant if not hazardous. This situation will worsen when the Southern Link road - a road built as an alternative to Fore Street and High Street for through vehicles - is traffic calmed as part of the plans for new housing developments on Heath Way and The Lamb. Most people profess to wanting to solve the problem, but few want to go as far as stopping vehicles from entering the town centre. Many believe that the town will die if there are no cars driving through it, even though it is well known that most of the traffic is rat running. Last October SHFoE's traffic survey showed that 278 of 437 vehicles using Fore St and High St between 5pm and 6.30 were rat running. We also found up to 10 vehicles parked in parking spaces in Fore St and High St for more than 3 hours on two different days. In January we carried out a 15 minute traffic survey and found 5 out of 40 rat running cars ended up in the car park at Follaton House! Fore Street and High Street are access only, but this seems to have little effect. The solution is probably some form of pedestrianisation, but the real battle is to change attitudes.

Please click here to download my complete article on Pedestrianisation in Totnes. (PDF small 55k)