A DEPUTY mayor has threatened to glue herself to the road in protest if Torbay Council goes ahead with plans to build hundreds of houses on the main road into Totnes.

Torbay Council must build 5,400 new homes by 2040 and most of it is planned for the A385 – parts of which are officially recognised as being heavily polluted - Cllr Georgina Allen declared.

She told councillors at the recent full town meeting: “Torbay has put most of its housing, as far as I can see, on that road.

“Any increase in traffic will just make the congestion and air quality along there worse.

“The whole point of having an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) is you are supposed to decrease congestion and decrease the amount of traffic because there are dangerous levels of air quality.

“This will only make it worse; nobody is addressing this or taking charge of this.

“It is incredibly unhealthy. We should not be doing this. It’s absolutely appalling.

“I am going to lie down and glue myself to the road if this goes on.”

Totnes Town Council has asked for feedback on Torbay Council’s Local Plan proposals.

As planning chairwoman, Cllr Allen presented the committee’s recommendations to full council.

“We can’t say a lot, we can only really say how it’s going to affect us. I would like to say a lot. A lot needs to be said. They need to be yelled at two inches from their faces.

“What we can say as a council is that consideration needs to be given to the planning impact and effects of more properties on the neighbouring authorities.”

Cllr Allen also called for a robust transport plan, a flood risk assessment and water treatment report.

“A robust transport plan is needed for the Torbay area and the proposed housing options – you would have thought that was a basic?

“There also needs to be a flood risk assessment. How will the proposed site options impact on the adjacent area of infrastructure? Everything that you do in one area has consequences on its neighbouring areas. This has not been looked into all, there is no flood risk assessment.

“There is already an issue with sewage problems along the Bay’s coastline, as we all see endlessly on television reports. However, we don’t know how Torbay is dealing with this.

“What water treatment provision is there alongside this increase in development to improve the water quality of the beaches?”

Cllr Sarah Collinson said raw sewage entering the water systems is a major public health concern that neither Torbay Council or South Hams Council is addressing.

“I was at a World Health Summit a couple of weeks ago and the stuff that was being talked about in terms of sewage going into the water was truly scary because it isn’t just about the nastiness of the smelly stuff, we are talking about antibiotics going into the water, leading to antibiotic resistances.

“It was described, I think by the NHS chief executive, as a serious major public health concern in this country, and it just isn’t being taken seriously by our district council or by Torbay Council, or by anyone else, and it has to be.

“I don’t care how strongly we word it, but they can’t just keep building stuff.”

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson called for Torbay to invest in an anaerobic digestion system for its sewage, which breaks it down into biodegradable material.

“Sewage does not need to be dumped into the water. It is utterly barbaric.”

Cllr Hodgson also called for a Congestion Zone for an A385 Totnes congestion zone, a robust green transport plan, and insisted the town should receive 106 development funds towards traffic management.

“This will impact on us but Torbay is going to get all the money and we are going to get a lot of the problems,” she stated.

“There should be a robust green transport plan because it’s recognised that green transport brings in both public and non-vehicular transport.”

Cllr Hodgson added: “If they are going to be doing all this new development, the onus is on them to do it properly.”

Councillors unanimously agreed to urge Torbay Council to produce a green transport plan, carry out a full water treatment assessment, and seek to install an anaerobic digestion system for its water treatment. They also agreed to call for the creation of a Totnes A385 Congestion Zone.