Parking at Tiverton Parkway station

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Temporary coach park at Tiverton Parkway which has been unused for six months, must be scrapped rail bosses told

Tiverton Parkway train station

First Great Western have been told by district council planners to remove a temporary car and coach park installed at Tiverton Parkway to cope with increased passenger numbers following the damage to the London to Paddington mainline at Dawlish.

An agricultural field on the approach road to the station around a mile outside the village of Sampford Peverell was converted to help transfer passengers from rail services onto replacement coach services until the breach in the line was fixed.

The work was carried out without planning permission, but was allowed to go ahead by Mid Devon District Council given the extraordinary nature of the disruption to the mainline.

Following repairs to the track at Dawlish the mainline reopened before Easter and six months later the coach and car parking area remains in place, although not used.

In a report to Mid Devon District Council^s planning committee, enforcement officers said: ^Despite the assurances from the landowner and First Great Western that the coach park would be removed and the land reinstated to its former use and condition, as soon as the mainline was operational at Dawlish, the temporary coach park remains in place although not currently in use.^

The report states: ^It is considered ample time has been provided for the landowner and First Great Western to remove the coach park voluntarily as advised, unfortunately, this has not taken place.^

However, other parts of the report did not impress some councillors. Cllr Martin Binks said: ^The council^s letter to First Great Western said ^We are not of the opinion that there is a necessity for additional car and coach parking facilities to serve Tiverton Parkway station and would not support a planning application for its permanent retention^, but I don^t see any evidence to support that statement. When people give opinions, it is nice to see evidence to back them up.^

He said his own anecdotal experience was that the main car park and existing overflow car park at the station were already very busy at peak times. ^Whenever I go to Tiverton Parkway I can never find a space to park my car, on one occasion it wasn^t until after my intended train had actually gone that I was able to park.^

Dan Okie, regional manager for First Great Western told the committee: ^We are grateful to Mid Devon District Council for the support we received during the winter storms earlier this year. The works were funded by First Great Western at a cost of around ^1/4-million. Tiverton Parkway is a very important station fro the Mid Devon economy with 450,000 journeys taken from there per annum. It is a key joining point to the mainline rail network.^

He said the company believed the whole issue of parking to meet the growing needs of Tiverton Parkway users had to be examined, and ask the council to consider deferring enforcement action to allow a planning application for retention of the area to be considered.

Mike Aspray, clerk to Sampford Peverell Parish Council also spoke at the meeting on Wednesday, October 8 to tell councillors that villagers felt retaining the area could provide a ^lit footpath running for part of the approach to the station^ which was currently narrow and poorly lit and thus did not encourage people to walk from the village to the station, further exacerbating traffic levels at the station.

Councillors voted to approve the application to seek to take enforcement action but extended the time in which the landowner and rail company had to comply to three months.

Purely in the interests of accuracy, it's actually Dan Okey, regional manager for First Great Western, rather than Dan Okie. Journalists, eh? Roll Eyes