Senior councillors have confirmed plans to plans to improve the back roads around Slapton.
The improvements are part of wider programme of work by the council in response to the devasting storm Ingrid earlier this year, that caused extensive damage to homes in Torcross, and undermined parts of the A379 Slapton coast road.
The council has submitted a bid to government for the funding to reinstate the A379. But in the meantime, it has plans to improve the back roads in the local area.
Councillor Dan Thomas, the council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for highways, said:
“We have to be prepared to reinforce the back routes to allow people to move around, whether the A379 is back up and running or not.
“Whatever happens, the A379 is not going to be repaired immediately, and a bid into government will take time.
“In the meantime, people who have been enormously frustrated around this area need to be able to get around.
“And to do that, we need to widen some of those back lanes with more passing places to make traffic easier.
“The plan is to do that with the first tranche of work over this winter. There will probably be a further tranche the following winter.
“We’ll be doing it in the winter months ready for the following summer season.
“So over the next season you should see a difference in the ease of which you can drive around back routes.
“It’s not to say we’re forgetting the main A379, we’re not, we’re really keen to see that reinstated, but we’re in the hands of the government in that regard.
“The back lanes we can look after ourselves so we’re going to go on and do just that.”
