PARENTS living on a new housing estate in Tavistock are campaigning for better disabled and pedestrian access after it emerged that people were walking on a busy main road with no walkway to access the site.

Embden Grange is a new estate on Butcher Park Hill and its only access on foot is via four sets of steps.

The 110 homes plan by David Wilson Homes was granted the go-ahead on appeal after being refused by West Devon Borough Council in 2015. Concerns were expressed locally at the time over the pedestrian access to the site.

Susan Hopcroft moved to the estate in November last year with her husband and two children and raised ‘serious concerns’ surrounding the lack of disabled or child friendly access to and from the site.

She expressed to developers that the steps were ‘not practical’ for people either pushing a pram, trike or using a wheelchair and the only way in on wheels was to use the main entrance, accessed from the main road.

Susan added: ‘The stairs to get into the estate or into town are a big problem as there are four sets.’

Susan has two children Jake, 3, and Keira, 20 months. ‘When I have the double buggy there is no way I can do the steps and I have walked in the road to get to town, which in lockdown was fine but now drivers are back to normal and flying down that road, sometimes at 70mph, it’s dangerous.

‘This is a family estate that they are building and we need better access.’

Susan said that if drivers drove at the 30mph speed limit then the road might be safer for people to use and access the site.

When approached by the Times, a spokesperson for David Wilson Homes said: ‘We’ve been in discussion with local residents and understand their concerns. The [pedestrian] entrance to Embden Grange is on a steep hill surrounded by mature trees. A sloped path therefore risks being extremely slippery in winter so steps offered the safest solution, as agreed with the highways team at Devon County Council. We are fully supportive of residents’ discussions with the council about speed reduction measures for the main road into Tavistock.’

West Devon Cllr Jeff Moody, ward member for the Butcher Park Hill area of Tavistock north, said: ‘I was absolutely shocked to find out that young families living in the new development with children in pushchairs are unable to gain pedestrian access onto the footpath and are having to walk down the busy highway due to the steep steps.

‘There is no access whatsoever for people with young children and pushchairs or disabled and elderly people using mobility scooters.

‘I fully support the young families who are campaigning for the developer to install a pushchair/ mobility scooter friendly pathway to access footpath into town.

‘I sincerely hope that the developer can find a solution to this very serious problem .’

West Devon Borough Council said part of the application details approved by the Planning Inspectorate included the pedestrian and vehicular access arrangements. As such WDBC had no control over the access arrangements when the detailed reserved matters application came in for consideration in 2017, since the inspector had already approved the detail for the footway and steps.

‘Since the grant of the outline permission by the Planning Inspectorate, West Devon planning department has worked with the developer of the site, Barratts David Wilson, to achieve the best access to, and within, the site given the difficult limitations of the site’s landscape and what had already been agreed by the inspector,’ said Cllr Caroline Mott, the council’s lead member for development management and licensing.