More than half the group given the vital task of moulding two years of public meetings into a definitive traffic and parking plan for Dartmouth have ended up backing out of taking part.

The parking plan suggestions include controversially putting pay and display meters on town centre streets, building a multi storey car park, pedestrianising roads and shifting the bus station.

But when the traffic group was asked to make its mind up about what should be in the plan and what should be out, only eight of the 17 official members of the group bothered to take part.

Each of them was sent a document and asked to spell out what issues they supported and which they were opposed to.

The poor showing follows a meeting last month when the traffic and parking group was supposed to make similar decision – which ended up being scrapped when only eight people showed up.

The results of this latest attempt to get a traffic and parking plan published is due to go before next Tuesday's town council meeting.

But this week parking group chairman Roger Chilcott said: 'It's disappointing. I don't really understand it. Perhaps it's a case of people being scared to put their heads above the parapet.

'The members were given the opportunity to take part on more than one occasion. We said to them that if they didn't produce a return then it would be assume they accepted the vote of the team.'

The parking group members were not even expected to come to a meeting but were sent copies of the questions they were expected to answer and simply asked to tick the boxes.

And still only eight of them returned the questionnaire.

When town councillors look at the results on Tuesday, they will be told half the eight were against bringing in pay and display in the lower town while the other half supported it alongside residents/business permits or 'pop and shop' permits.

All but one opposed a multi-storey car park and most backed chevron parking alongside Coronation Park. But there was little support for pedestrianisation and a bit of a split over residents' parking.

The group members who bothered to give their views were district councillor Hilary Bastone; town councillors Rob Lyon, Roger Chilcott and Dave Cawley; Stoke Fleming parish councillor Nick Wood; Angie Cairns-Sharpe from the tourist information centre and the local public transport group; business forum chairman Paul Reach; and Tony Fyson from the Dartmouth and Kingswear Society.

Residents took part in one of the biggest surveys the town has ever held to get to this stage of the parking plan process.

Town councillors will have to approve any plan before recommending it to the county council.