The loss of the coast road at Slapton will change the lives and businesses of people in the surrounding South Hams parishes and towns forever, a survey finds.

The Slapton Line Partnership (SLP) has just carried out the biggest ever assessment of how people will be affected by the inevitable closure of the Slapton coast road.

According to the survey, 41 per cent of respondents said the closure would disrupt their routines to 'a great extent', with a further 24 per cent saying their routines would be disrupted 'a fair amount'.

Overall, three-quarters of people in the Slapton area will have their routines affected by a road closure.

Nearly half of respondents to the questionnaire said they were regular users of the Slapton coast road - fourteen per cent used the road daily, 12 per cent used the road 4 or 5 times a week and 18 per cent used the road 2 or 3 times a week.

A further 18 per cent said they used the Slapton coast road 1 or 2 times a week, while 12 per cent of participants used it 1 or 2 times a fortnight. The SLP survey found that just 2 per cent never use the road.

The most common reasons respondents gave for using the Slapton coast road were 'travelling to shops' (29 per cent), 'to get to leisure activities elsewhere' (26 per cent) and 'to get to leisure activities in Slapton' (15 per cent). Only 1 per cent of those surveyed said they have a business in the area.

Alan Denbigh, Slapton Line Partnership: "The responses to the survey are fascinating and will reap great rewards over the duration of the project."

The survey also asked people about what plans they had made in anticipation of future road closures. Worryingly, a massive 82 per cent said they had made no plans. Fourteen per cent said they had considered alternative routes to work or school and 3 per cent said they had considered going elsewhere for leisure activities.

Other responses to the questionnaire were more reassuring. The survey proved that 90 per cent of residents living near the road are already aware that it was threatened by erosion. The SLP noted that there had been some concern in the past that local people were unaware of the limited future of the road.

The telephone survey, conducted over a week during November 2007, gave one in five people - more than 400 in the immediate vicinity of the coast road - the chance to have their say. A further 200 residents were surveyed from neighbouring parishes and towns. The independent research was carried out by local company Marketing Means on behalf of the SLP.

Alan Denbigh, business and community development manager for the SLP, said: "The responses to the survey are fascinating and will reap great rewards over the duration of the project.

"The survey has helped raise awareness of some of the measures that have already been taken such as pre-emptive planning permission being secured for re-aligning the road following erosion on the stretch considered most vulnerable.

"The results of this survey will also help the SLP better understand the community. As a result the SLP will be able to communicate and offer support to specific groups in a tailored way."

The opinions captured are being used in conjunction with the existing Adaptation Plan as the foundations for the SLP’s £250,000 Making Space for Water project, which is being funded and supported by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The project's central objectives are to support people using the coast road as they plan for the changes to their lives caused by future road closures. Despite the SLP's commitment to maintaining the road for as long as possible, factors such as rising sea levels will mean the route is expected to be repeatedly shut due to storm damage and eventually closed altogether.

Alan Robinson, chairman of the SLP, said: "The SLP exists to support all the people that rely on the road, whether for work or leisure. For us to reach these people and spend the funding where they most need it, we have to first find out more about them. This survey was about the community having their say and us listening and it has been an invaluable process."