Teignmouth

[Dave]

Teignmouth

I have always banged on that Torbay needs to go back to basics, get itself cleaned up and learn how to welcome its visitors so much better. Its fine having some new big tower block on the harbour, but no good if it is surrounded in muck and decay.

Getting the streets clean, getting everything such as railings painted up nicely and charging respectable parking charges and not subjecting the visitors to the NCP would start to turn the Bays fortunes around.

The Mayor wants to drop the name Torbay, he wants it changed to The English Riviera, sorry but we are not and we have a seaside town nearby, who the name would suit so much better.

Torbay Council need look no further that the next door council Teignbridge, to see how to make a place not only spotlessly clean but so welcoming. Carol and I love it there and prefer to spend our time there, or in the South Hams another place that has a very good council in my mind, than go to Torquay.

This afternoon we decide to go there and grab a meal there, three car parks we had to try before we found a spot to park in. Only £2.40 for four hours parking, no wonder they are full and Torbay’s seldom are.

We did not fancy and posh food today; we love our carverys, but today wanted something simple. I know Barton loves the Whistle Stop café at the train station and after parking the car, we headed there. I went for steak and kidney pudding with chips and peas, just over £4 in cost. The dear lady asked if I would like at no extra charge some other veg. Soon I had swede and cauliflower on my plate as well. The pudding was not one of those small one, but one that surly must be for two people (no rude remarks please)

I had to leave some on my plate; fully stuffed we headed for a walk on the seafront. It’s so clean and we came through the place known as the Triangle, the fist thing that greets you on the seafront is the bowing green. It was fully in use and we stopped a while to watch a few shots being played.

There was a small Rowland fair next to the bowling green, it was not very busy and we walked through it. Some of today’s rides really are so scary; you have to be the bravest or the maddest to want to ride on them.

You then come on to the most wonderful new play area for kids, everything they could want is in there, even a few water features that form no more than puddles on the floor, but the kids sure looked like they were having such fun playing in them.

We carried on our walk toward the point where the river Teign flows into the sea. A loud speaker was calling people to come and have a look at the Lifeboat and meet the crew. We walked over but as we got there they got a shout and it was all action then for a while, until they got it launched. We moved back over to the sea side rail and watched it come out of the mouth of the river and head across the sea.

Heading back the other way now we went onto the pier, this is the only part that lets Teignmouth down a bit in my view. Well it’s the end of it really, the old kid’s rides look sad and tiered and hardly anyone seems to want to pay to use them, maybe a rethink is needed to improve the pier a bit.

We stopped and looked out at the sea many time and enjoyed having a good old natter together, so much so, we did not really have time to walk along the seawall further down, where the trains run beside the sea.

You will not find cleaner or smarter public toilets anywhere I don’t think, we saw council workers on a Sunday keeping the bins empty and the whole place was buzzing with people, even on the beach, sand castles were being made. I said to Carol the good old bucket and spade holiday was not dead in Teignmouth.