George Street car park opens on Teignmouth's old garage plot

Teignbridge sign at the entrance to the new George Street public car park in Teignmouth

26 September 2026

Nineteen extra short-stay spaces are now open on George Street in Teignmouth, on the corner plot that used to be Swanson’s Garage. Teignbridge District Council brought the car park into use this month. Drivers can pay by chip and PIN, contactless card or cash. The council said the RingGo phone system would follow within about 10 days of opening.

Marked parking bays and new surfacing at the George Street car park in Teignmouth town centre — The new short-stay bays on the corner of George Street and Brunswick Street

The garage buildings came down in 2020. The ground then sat empty while the council weighed what to do with it and with the wider Brunswick Street block, a regeneration site in the Teignbridge Local Plan. Fuel tanks were lifted and the land cleaned in 2022.

In February 2025 Councillor Macgregor asked why the corner had lain behind hoardings for more than two years. Officers said the site was complex, with buried features still being resolved.

One of those features was a 19th-century stone culvert. The build replaced it with a piped drain and added a boundary wall, a new junction and footway, lighting and better surface-water drainage.

Exeter contractor Prime Build South West won the works tender at £442,366. Earlier enabling work on the tanks, surveys and consultants had already cost about £78,000. Construction started in late February. The council had hoped to finish before the summer holidays.

The car park is what remains of a larger plan. In April 2022 Full Council voted to sell adjoining Brunswick Street land to Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust and to fund this park at the George Street junction. The trust later withdrew from the purchase.

Earlier talk of a hotel on the wider site also came to nothing. The existing 56-space short-stay park on Brunswick Street is still next door.

Nineteen bays will not settle every parking argument in the town centre. They do put a vacant corner back into daily use, within walking distance of Northumberland Place.