PROPOSALS to tarmac over pavements have been condemned as ’not very South Brent’ by parish councillors.

Devon Highways sent a letter to the council telling villagers of its plans to replace paving slabs in Church Street and Station Road with a ’bitmac’ surface.

Dartmoor National Park also wrote saying it did not support the move, but if it was to be done the tarmac should be surfaced dressed in an appropriate colour.

Councillors were split over the plans, some seeing it as a chance to improve safety, while others were horrified at the aesthetic impact.

The slabs are prone to lifting and tilting, creating a trip hazard, and have been a long-running source of complaints from locals. The proposal is to replace them with tarmac, properly called bitmac, short for bituminous macadam, which would create a flatter surface.

Town clerk Julia Willoughby set out the options to councillors at a meeting on Monday, following conversations she had had with Devon Highways staff. She explained the existing slabs could be set on a more stable base, but the extra expense involved would mean the work could only be done over at least three years. If councillors agreed to the bitmac option, however, the work could be carried out much more quickly.

Devon County Council has told the Gazette that while the bitmac option would cost £39 per square metre, relaying the slabs on a harder material to make them less likely to move would cost around £65 per square metre.

Cllr Glyn Richards said the slabs had been a problem ’for as long as I’ve sat at this table’, because they were set in sand which was affected by lots of rain. He said they were ’the biggest trip hazard in our community’, and speaking for himself and anyone with a similar disability, anything would be better than what is there at the moment.

But looking at a photo of a bitmaced pavement in Newton Abbot, Cllr Heidi Rodriguez said she was not sure if it was an appropriate surface for ’areas like ours’. Cllr Cathie Pannell agreed, saying the surface was not appropriate for a moorland village like South Brent and there ’must be another way’.

Referring to the Newton Abbot picture, Cllr Mandy Haley said: ’That doesn’t look at all South Brent.’

She continued: ’We are supposed to look after this area. It’s our conservation area, and we’re responsible for keeping it looking the way it always has.’

Cllr Peter Kelly, however, agreed with Cllr Richards. He said: ’I think most people don’t even notice the slabs are there to be honest.

’We’re putting blocks in the way here, but we’ve got a chance to do something about this now. We should be thinking, do we want to make it safe? This is a safety issue.’

Councillors mooted the idea of making a contribution from parish council funds to set the slabs in a harder surface, and agreed to discuss this way forward with Devon Highways.

A spokesman for Devon County Council said: ’The cost of resurfacing Church Street and Station Road with bitmac is around £39 per square metre. Relaying the existing slabs on a harder material would see this rise to approximately £65 per square metre, and incur greater ongoing maintenance costs.

’Bitmac is already widely used throughout the National Park.’