Sadness as 'shabby' brook blights town's look
BBCA Devon seaside town is losing its "picture postcard" look due to the state of a stream running through it, locals have said.
Residents are unhappy as the Dawlish Water stream, which goes through the town and into the sea, has had piles of silt build up since it was last dredged several years ago.
They want Teignbridge District Council (TDC) and the Environment Agency (EA) to dredge the waterway and to cut back vegetation.
TDC and EA said dredging had limited benefits and were working on solutions for the issues raised.
Dredging is done to remove silt from waterways and to help prevent flooding.
Linda Stubbs said she had spent the majority of her life living in Dawlish and the brook - which is home to animals including black swans - was in the worst state she had ever seen it.
She added: "You could never, do what you can do and, walk on the river - it was always kept clean.
"It's really sad to see that my hometown is going downhill."
Wendy Chadwick, owner of the Puzzled Sweet Shop, said she feared tourists would stop coming to the town due to the poor state of the brook.
"You couldn't put this on a postcard now - this is not postcard material," she said.
Rosie Dawson, TDC chair and a member of Dawlish Town Council, said locals wanted to see action taken: "I think there's a really strong feeling that the place is looking shabby."
EA officials said they were working with TDC and other partners on solutions, but dredging was not necessarily the answer.
An EA spokesperson said: "The removal of silt through dredging is very costly and investigations have shown it offers very little benefit to Dawlish in terms of flood protection or value for money."
A TDC spokesperson said dredging was an "extremely complex and costly operation" that had limited flood risk benefits.
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