Council fees keep NHS breast screening van off town car parks
10 September 2026
Women in Dawlish and Teignmouth can still have a mammogram close to home. They just cannot do it in the council car parks that used to host the van.
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust now parks its mobile breast screening unit at Sainsbury’s in Dawlish and Morrisons in Teignmouth after Teignbridge District Council asked for thousands of pounds for a two-week stay. The trust also uses Buckfast Abbey and the House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey.
Buckfastleigh town councillor Sue Clarke said the same charge was put on the main car parks in Buckfastleigh, Bovey Tracey and Dawlish. Her latest appointment was at the abbey, not the town car park she had used for 25 years.
The pitch only appeared after a cancellation. Without it, she said, the unit would not have reached Buckfastleigh this year.
“This is a car park that is mostly empty 100 per cent of the time,” she said. She has been told of at least two women whose cancers were found after they attended in the town. “I have never had so many messages privately from individuals expressing their utter disgust at Teignbridge.”
A trust spokesperson said screening helps detect cancers so treatment can start sooner, and thanked the four hosts for the free space.
The row is not new. In May 2024 the Mid Devon Advertiser reported a charge thought to be about £1,000. Then council leader Martin Wrigley, a Dawlish councillor, called an officer decision “bonkers” and promised a new policy. Two years on the trust is still finding private pitches.
Teignbridge said waiver requests are considered case by case, that it offered the maximum reduction allowed under current policy, and that it is reviewing parking fees and concessions.
The South Devon programme has screened around 200,000 women in 20 years and found about 2,000 cancers. NHS England funded a £240,000 replacement van in late 2023 so women in nine towns need not travel to Torbay Hospital. Eligible women aged 50 to 70 are invited every three years.
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