In 1972, Devon County Council – the Highways Authority at the time – made provision for a £10 million dual-carriageway flyover that would have linked the North Cross roundabout with Alma Road and gone directly over the railway and the Pennycomequick roundabout. It would have involved demolishing the Upper and the Lower Knollys Terraces and taken a further strip along the western edge of Central Park.
Spending cuts meant that the scheme kept on being deferred and, after 25 years of planning blight and neglect, Lower Knollys Terrace had to be demolished in 1998. Although the flyover scheme was never officially abandoned, it became to be understood as such. The demolition site was put up for development in 2004 and led to the building of Monroe Gardens soon afterwards.
The strip of parkland that would have been lost had the Pennycomequick flyover been built is marked by the “highway improvement line” in this plan from the City Engineer’s 1981 report. The line extends along Outland Road in anticipation that it too would be widened and made into a dual carriageway.