I remember being amazed when I saw the sign on the A361 when leaving Barnstaple advertising 35 months of road improvements. Wow! How can they have worked out exactly how long it would take?
Living in Swimbridge, we have suffered many days and nights of traffic being diverted through the village and then through Landkey. Many of the houses in Landkey do not have driveways and folk park on the roadside, so you can imagine the chaos.
Well, apparently it is now coming to an end. Speed limits will be removed around the new South Molton/North Molton junction. (I dread to think how many motorists have been caught out by the constantly changing speed limits and received speeding fines)
The stretch between Landkey and Barnstaple is a total mystery to me and everyone that I speak to. For many months diggers have excavated the roadside on the Portmore Golf Club side, trucks have dropped thousands of tons of aggregate and soil, and trees have been torn down.
So what is the result?
Well, we have a new Landkey roundabout and what is, in effect, a road which is narrower than the previous one leading to Barnstaple.
What was the point of the groundworks?
At the Landkey roundabout we have a magnificent footbridge, with spiral staircases at each end which leads to NOWHERE. This must have cost millions.
‘If I were a rich man’ That epic song from Fiddler on the Roof tells us how ‘I would build a staircase leading nowhere just for show’
Well done, planners – that is what you have done.
It now appears that 150-odd new homes will possibly be built on the other side of the bridge, with a good proportion being affordable. Let’s see.
A recent Devon Live post on this development, stated that Landkey has a ‘good’ rated primary school, a pub and a store/post office. That store shut down about 18 months ago! I’d imagine that 150 new homes will generate at least 100 more primary school kids. Landkey Primary School cannot cope with them.
I don’t support NIMBY; we need more affordable homes in North Devon.
But what is the cost of all of the roadworks that possibly have made traffic congestion worse?
Were the original plans changed?
They could have at least made the new and totally unnecessary earth banks attractive rather than covered in weeds as they are now.
30-odd months of inconvenience with precious little to show for it.
Thanks!
Ian Jacques
