Sunday 10 October 2010, author: admin

Morning Members,

Paul has asked me to send out a copy of the letter he sent to Chris Watkins who is the Area Traffic Engineer regarding the RPS.  There is a copy available of the Parsons Brinckerhoff RPS feasibility Scheme that was commissioned in 2006 for Chamber members to read.  As it is such a large document, it does not want to upload to the website which I am working on.  If any members would like a copy, please reply to this email at  info@totnes-chamber.com and I will send out the report direct to you.

Finally, the next meeting arranged to discuss the RPS is Monday, 11th October.  Paul would be grateful for all members comments regarding the Scheme so if you haven't got round to emailing your comments or speaking to Paul, please do so ASAP.

Thank you

Dear Chris,

Many thanks for arranging the recent, and the next, meeting
to reassess the RPS.
I have asked our members to let me know of any specific proposals they
can come up with at short notice for immediate implementation.Not an
easy request when so many are preoccupied with the combined impacts of
recession and the RPS
After the last meeting I was unfortunately still not able to answer the
question "what exactly has changed since Parsons Brinckerhoff
investigated this issue thoroughly in 2006?'
Their research took place in March of that year which, in my experience,
is just about the quietest month of the year. In other words, parking
issues throughout the town more than likely deteriorated through the
rest of that year. Further subjective and anecdotal evidence would
insist that the overall parking situation in the town has deteriorated
even further each year since then. On what basis of counterintuitive
fact has Devon County Highways Dept decided to ignore the warnings and
recommendations of the PB report?  Until we know precisely what new
information your department has, it remains difficult, if not impossible
to accurately self-assess any ideas we, the non-professionals might
have.I am sure you understand that it is most inadequate to be told
simply that "things have moved on" which is all we have to go on so far.
Like Cllrs. Westacott and Vint I would like to move on to something more
constructive in these matters.  Unlike them, I do not believe that we can
do so positively and co-operatively until some fundamental questions
have been answered, for the Chamber of Commerce members, for the Town
Council and for the Community as a whole.

1. Why was the Parsons Brinckerhoff Report, its research, its warnings
and its conclusions ignored or rejected?

2. Precisely what changes have occured since that report that the
Highways Dept considers good reason to not act upon it?

3. and two supplementaries. When was this report made known/ available
to Cllr P Black.  If it was not, why not?

and 4.What precisely is the working relationship between the Highways
Dept and Parsons Brinckerhoff at present?

I am sure that you have enough on your plate, as have we all, rather
than having to deal with these questions and for that I apologise. I am
also sure however that if we cannot supply satisfactory answers to these
questions then resolution of current problems will be even more
difficult and take much longer.

Yours sincerely
Paul Wesley
Chair, Totnes and District Chamber of Commerce