Alan and June's dream to open 'five-star' Bay hotel with-a-difference

Plans are moving ahead at full speed to open a new 'five-star' hotel-with-a-difference in Torbay.

A fund-raising campaign has been launched to find £975,000 to buy a current clifftop hotel in Torquay and turn it into the Bay's first 'disability hotel'.

It will be run by people with special and additional needs and will offer five-star holidays on the English Riviera for visitors with similar life-challenging conditions.

The hotel, 'wellness retreat and respite centre' is the brainchild of Alan Tilley and June Mills, joint directors of Community Interest Company Turning Heads, who are determined to develop the resort's first 'inclusive' holiday provision and training centre.

A hotel has been identified for the project but the near-£1 million will have to be raised within the next few months. A tall and impossible order? Alan revealed a crowdfunding campaign has been launched and more than £150,000 has come in in just four weeks. 

An expert at fund-raising after generating around £500,000 funding for Turning Heads and other organisations in the past five years, Alan says: "I am forever the optimist. We can do it."

Turning Heads is a community interest company that has been helping to build a community in Torbay since 2018. It values and empowers togetherness and works with people and organisations across Torbay including families, children, people with disabilities, over 65s, those who are furthest from employment and education and those who might be isolated or vulnerable.

Turning Heads are working in partnership with, and are being supported by, Torbay Mencap,Torbay Council, Unicare Devon and South Devon College.

Alan and June say: "The new hotel will be a working hotel, located in the heart of Torbay where we aim to be giving the opportunity of employment and training for people with learning and physical disabilities, providing five-star inclusive holidays, respite accommodation, as well as employment, learning, education and wellbeing programmes.

"We aim to employ staff as job coaches and then provide employment and training opportunities for at least 20 adults every year with additional needs.

"Turning Heads will be developing a centre of excellence for learning, the promotion of best practice, championing disability, collaborating with voluntary and community groups across Torbay with national organisations and training providers. 

"The hotel will then link up with other hospitality providers across the Bay, providing high quality employees ready to hire.

"We will actively employ staff with learning disabilities and encourage blended models of working using the job coaches and mentors, working closely with the DWP and local employment and training partners.

"We will provide training and opportunities for students aged 16 to 19 who are not in education, employment or training in Torbay and Devon. And we will develop and run a café and hotel restaurant developing this site as a skills and training centre."

They added: "We are looking to buy a hotel in Torbay and want to purchase this using local investment."

The crowdfunder page can be found at Torbay Disability Hotel (crowdfunder.co.uk) or people you can get in touch as a potential investor by contacting Alan or June at admin@turningheads.org.uk

"We are determined to create real change in the Bay for those who need supporting into employment but also create a holiday destination for families with a disabled child, showcasing the best of Torbay and setting us apart from other holiday destinations," say Alan and June.

"Torbay has so much to offer, and this proposed development would allow us to sit head and shoulders above other holiday destinations."

Alan said: "This will be the first hotel of its kind - I think there may be something similar in North Devon but up there they are financed by the local authority.

He says he is not particularly enamoured with the 'Torbay Disability Home'. "It does what it says but if anybody has any other suggestions we would love to hear them," says Alan.