Torbay roadworks: summer respite planned

£4 million harbourside regeneration continues

Businesses around Torquay harbourside have been assured that passing traffic won’t be held up by roadworks through the busy summer holiday season.

An ambitious scheme to transform the harbourside is into its second phase, with trees being planted on the cleared and widened area in front of the old Debenhams store.

When the £4 million project is completed in the autumn, the former dual carriageway arrangement will be replaced by a narrower roadway and a wider pedestrian area.

Buses will no longer stop in the area, with a complete new bus ‘hub’ being built around the corner. Torbay Council claim the changes will mean less congestion and pollution.

“It had become a bus station,” said the council’s deputy leader Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston).

“This will deliver something much better.”

The new open area will allow pedestrians access to the famous Mallock Tower clock as well as giving space for seating and pop-up events.

It is part of a wide-scale regeneration of Torquay and other parts of Torbay being funded by tens of millions of pounds in government grants.

Temporary traffic lights around the building site have led to delays for commuters, and some businesses had said their trade was being hit by the works.

But Cllr Lewis stressed that the council was holding regular meetings with harbourside traders and doing all it could to help.

He said no road closures are planned during the school summer holidays, and some of the unsightly fences on part of the site will be dismantled by Easter.

The project will see a new statue of Agatha Christie unveiled on the harbourside, and some of the area’s old tramlines will be cleaned and restored, to be put on display as part of the new open public space.