Coming soon...
A PROJECT to bring passenger trains back to the four-mile Newton Abbot to Heathfield rail track, along with a supporting park and ride facility, has been welcomed as an alternative to congested roads for Heathfield, Bovey Tracey and Moorland residents attracted to Newton’s shopping, leisure activities and work potential. The Heath Rail Link group was formed to restore the route which opened in 1866 but was mothballed in 1959, except for occasional freight use. Its campaign was supported by a petition with close to 3,000 signatures which led line owners Network Rail to not only give permission for HRL to use the route, subject to sufficient finance being raised to fund the rolling stock and build the park and ride feature, but to elect to restore the track to public use standards as well.
The project has been backed by South West MEP
William Dartmouth and Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris. If all goes to plan the line could reopen by 2020 and anyone wanting to support the venture should contact HRL chairman Michael Cooke on 07722 029338 or visit Heath Rail Link on Facebook.
Budget supermarket Aldi aims to open its 1,140 sq m food store at the former David and Charles site in Brunel Road next spring; it will have 99 parking spaces and employ some 50 staff. Though campaigners have lost the Victorian former engine shed on the site the company will be retaining and renovating the iconic railway signals facing Torquay Road that once served the western approach to the station and were re-sited at the edge of the former publishers’ car park in 1987, two years after the demolition of the station’s signal box. The overall design has, however, been revised to include a redbrick building and arched windows, reflecting the town’s rail heritage.
Mark Hobbs, James Hartley, Mike Cooke, Rob Pym
(Network Rail) and Steve
Warren survey the line.
Supermarket Asda is hoping to add a petrol station and jet wash to its Newton store. The new facility will use 55 parking spaces and reduce car park availability to 361 slots.
A state-of-the-art new lounge for horse owners and trainers has been proposed for Newton Abbot Racecourse to help the business compete as the nation’ number one summer jump racecourse and if approved it will be built on a disused roof close to the main grandstand.
A major clean-up of Penn Inn roundabout was launched in April by Newton Abbot Community Interest Company, supported by local councillors and volunteers, involving the removal of graffiti in the subways and the clearance of a stretch of land for planting with the aid of local nursery Plant World.
Teignbridge Council has been awarded £2.5 million to clear brown field sites in Bradley Lane from industrial contaminants in order to kick-start its Local Plan regeneration proposals to build 170 homes and a mix of businesses. The money has come from the government’s £45 million Land Release Fund to aid community projects.
A £25 million development scheme has been proposed to create a mini new town with 1,800 homes, school, employment land, community centre and a new road link between the A382 and A383 at Houghton Barton on the western edge of Newton Abbot, though clay company Sibelco is concerned over its effects on mineral rights in the area. The site stretches from Forches Cross towards Seale-Hayne and south to the former Hele Park golf course on the Ashburton Road where a 650-home development is under construction.
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