{"id":58333,"date":"2022-11-16T16:21:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T16:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=58333"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:45:19","slug":"ashburton-road-bovey-tracey-due-to-reopen-on-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/ashburton-road-bovey-tracey-due-to-reopen-on-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashburton Road, Bovey Tracey, due to reopen on Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Chair of a Bovey Tracey residents\u2019 group, who has been affected by the closure of a section of Ashburton Road, has&nbsp;praised county council engineers ahead of its imminent reopening.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The C229 road is due to reopen to traffic on Monday, November 21, &#8211; it has been closed to vehicles since February 2020 following a large landslip on the face of a former quarry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The closure has affected the ability of local residents &#8211; particularly residents of New Park &#8211; to get to local amenities in the town centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Ashburton Road opening\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/vqJw9OVBvY0?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Colin Back, chairman of the New Park Community Association, said that while the closure had made \u2018life difficult\u2019, he understood the difficulties the engineers have had to overcome and thanked them for keeping residents regularly updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Back, and other members of the Community Association joined county councillors and engineers on a \u2018walkabout\u2019 prior to the reopening of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The walkabout, which included Devon County Council\u2019s Cabinet (DCC) Member for Highway Management Stuart Hughes, and local member George Gribble, was ahead of the work to realign a 200-metre section of the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Engineers and Councillor Hughes showed the residents the line of the original road, the changes that had been made, including a new hedgerow and fence line, and explained some of the difficulties that the team had encountered along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Councillor Hughes said that public safety was \u2018paramount\u2019, and they had no choice other than to close the road to vehicles:<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_acf-block-69779a0dcafa5\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right dcc grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council&#8217;s Cabinet Member for Highway Management said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p>\u201cI want to thank the residents, and I\u2019m grateful for their patience\u201d, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot more complicated than just realigning a section of road. There was extensive damage to the highway and the area\u2019s extensive history of mining raised significant safety concerns over the stability of the ground beneath the road. We had to consider the very real possibility that there could be former mining tunnels and features beneath the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n        <div class=\"councillor-quote-aside medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n\t<figure class=\"councillor-quote-image grid-x\">\r\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small-6 cell medium-12\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/themes\/dcc-parent-v4\/images\/avatar-placeholder.png\" alt=\"placeholder image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\r\n        <figcaption class=\"councillor-quote-description small-6 cell medium-12\" >\r\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=156\" rel=\"noopener\">Councillor Stuart Hughes, Cabinet Member for Highway Management<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n            <\/figure>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>\n\n\n<p>He added that because the new route extends into Dartmoor National Park, they have worked closely with Dartmoor National Park Authority as well as landowners and utility companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All throughout the project engineers have been giving residents regular updates on the progress of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_acf-block-69779a0dcafef\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right dcc grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Councillor George Gribble, Devon County Councillor for Bovey Tracey, said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p>\u201cI\u2019m delighted that the road is finally going to reopen. It\u2019s been difficult to access local amenities and residents have had to drive an extra seven-miles as part of their round trip. I would also like to thank residents of New Park for their forbearance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n        <div class=\"councillor-quote-aside medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n\t<figure class=\"councillor-quote-image grid-x\">\r\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small-6 cell medium-12\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/themes\/dcc-parent-v4\/images\/avatar-placeholder.png\" alt=\"placeholder image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\r\n        <figcaption class=\"councillor-quote-description small-6 cell medium-12\" >\r\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=145\" rel=\"noopener\">Councillor George Gribble<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n            <\/figure>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>\n\n<div id=\"block_acf-block-69779a0dcafff\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Chairman of the New Park Community Association Colin Back said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p>\u201cWe are delighted with the reopening of Ashburton Road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe closure of this section for more than two and a half years made life difficult for the residents of New Park, our families, friends, support services and trades people. Thank you to the community of New Park for your patience and perseverance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thank Meg Booth (DCC\u2019s Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport) and engineers James Stanley and Elliott Flynn of Devon Highways for their support and keeping us up to date through regular ZOOM meetings and more recently with site meetings.<\/p>\n<p>We appreciate some of the difficulties the engineering team have had to overcome to achieve this realignment. Well done!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":859,"featured_media":58334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,986],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-roads-and-transport","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":58334,"title":"DCIM100MEDIADJI_0067.JPG","alt":"Drone view of Ashburton 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