Tank memorial car park to close for 10 months

The Torcross Tank car park will be closed from Monday, 7 September, 2026 until June 2027 while the Environment Agency carries out essential works to the Torcross sea defences.

The closure will help facilitate the construction and storage activities required to deliver improvements to the sea defences, which are being carried out to help protect the community from the impacts of coastal erosion and severe weather.

We understand the temporary loss of parking may affect residents, businesses and visitors and is working closely with partners to minimise disruption wherever possible.

Alternative parking will remain available at:

• Strete Gate Car Park
• Slapton Memorial Car Park
• Torcross Layby

Public toilets at Torcross and Strete Gate will remain open throughout the works.

Pedestrians will still be able to access the village from the Ley footpath, the route will be diverted around the car park so access can continue safely. 

A spokesperson for SHDC said: "We will continue to work with the Environment Agency and other partners to keep the community updated as the project progresses."

Work will begin to position 55,000 tonnes of rock in front of the existing sea defences as part of a £19.8m improvement scheme that George Arnison, the Environment Agency's coastal engineer for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly said would "buy the community some time". 

In July, George Arnison, the Environment Agency's coastal engineer for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, told the BBC: "Torcross was a real wake up call. This is what climate change can look like.

"Torcross was very unlucky on this occasion, another day, another year, it would be somewhere else.

"But we've got to start having the conversations and work out what we do. Not just for places like Torcross but for other places around our coastline that are similarly at risk."

Arnison said the scheme was "value for money" but admitted it was not a permanent solution and there were "no easy answers".

"It will buy the community some time, buy the government some time, buy the Environment Agency some time, to think through what is the long term future here?"