Cllr. David Thomas: Renewal, restoration and rejuvenation

As we come to the end of this year, I wanted to share with you some reflections and highlights of the past eight months since I was elected as leader of the council.
As we cast our minds back to the beginning of May, I certainly hit the ground running. The day after Annual Council I found myself on a train to Leeds, to attend a very large Investor and Developer Conference and Exhibition called UKReiiF. This year was the first time Torbay as a place had attended, and along with the chair of our Place Board and the chief executive of the council, we went to raise the profile of our Bay. And we certainly told our story. The outcome of attending this conference, and along with a meeting in London that took place in November 2022, was that we secured our regeneration partnership with Wilmott Dixon and Milligan.
Having this partnership in place means we will be bringing a large amount of private investment into the Bay. I hope to announce in the New Year what projects and schemes they will be supporting us with.
Talking of funds coming into the Bay, well this year we have seen a range of funding awarded to us. Torquay was given £20million to be spent over 10 years to invest in our local town centre. This funding is in addition to the existing £21.9m Government funding package we have already received for the Torquay Town Deal.
We also heard that Brixham Fish Quay and our plans for a new Technology Park in Paignton were successful in securing funding from the Government Levelling Up pot. It doesn’t stop there, as Torbay was chosen to be one of 20 areas chosen to be part of the new Levelling Up Partnership. We don’t know how much yet this funding will be or which projects they will support, but we do know we are getting a share of the £400million allocated nationally.
Moving onto the areas of our culture and heritage, you will have seen that Torre Abbey is going through a large restoration. This will ensure we can keep this important building open and structurally sound for many more years to come.
We also had the announcement in October that Torbay will be receiving a share of £200million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, committing us to support our heritage sites across the Bay over the next 10 years.
There has also been good news about Oldway, which was discussed at the recent council meeting, I am pleased to see we are moving this forward, even if the steps do feel small. The masterplan for the building and site were approved and we agreed to find £1million to maintain it while we put wheels in motion to bring it back to life.
Talking of buildings, it did feel like we delivered a Christmas present to the Bay with the news last week of the Pavilion being brought back under the council control. This is just a slither of the achievements the council have achieved. We have also had success in our children’s services who continue to be national trailblazers with the running of the three family hubs we have across the Torbay.
We also took over the management of the Leonard Stocks Centre this year.
And the team has worked hard and reduced the length of those staying there by 50 per cent.
This means those residents have been supported and encouraged to take those next steps to having their own accommodation.
I’m running out of space now, I feel like I need a double column this week to share with you all of what we have achieved. We wanted to put you, our residents at the heart of everything we do, we also wanted to deliver. I hope you see from this we are working hard at that.
Growth and change can be hard, but I hope you agree, the Bay is moving forward, and I look forward to sharing more with you in 2024 about the progress of many other schemes and projects.
Wishing you and your families well and a merry Christmas.