Dave Thomas: Help us shape Brixham's future with 750k in funding

Hopefully you may have seen that we are asking about how best to spend £750,000 of government grant funding in Brixham. 

The funds have come from the Levelling Up Partnership, and we are working with Brixham Town Council and stakeholders to develop ideas that will make Brixham town centre and harbourside an even more attractive and vibrant place.

We are sharing some ideas, and we are keen to hear from the people who live, work or visit Brixham. All of the proposals have been thought about holistically to reflect and enhance the heritage nature of Brixham, the Harbour and its Conservation Area. This engagement is open until February 21 so there is still time to take part if you haven’t already.

To give you some idea of the proposals, they include installing 30 new, 600 litre solar smart compacting bins. These will have increased capacity and will help to reduce the amount of street clutter. They also contain smart technology with means they lock when the bin is full which prevents overflowing while at the same time advising SWISCo that it requires emptying.

Our plans also include installing around 250 metres of LED festoon lighting suspended from existing lamp columns and new black columns. 

We are also asking about exploring options for a 3D LED Light Installation to be projected onto the harbour wall. No fixtures would be made to the wall, lights would be fully controllable and only used on special occasions.
There is an opportunity to replace the existing traditional benches with similar new ones and consideration may also be given to relocating some of the seating to offer even better views of the harbour. 

We are also looking at adding seasonal feature planting in the form of hanging baskets or mobile planters to add more colour.

The proposals would review the current arrangements and put in place markedwalkways for the main pedestrian throughfares. New automated barriers would control and restrict vehicle movements and warning markers would make pedestrians and tourists aware of traffic moving in the area. 

Further proposals include installing 30 metres of a new floating pontoon. We see this as being able to provide safe launching, landing and mooring facilities for paddleboards and kayaks, separating recreational and business use on the water. 

Other proposals include looking at all the direction signs, repainting the harbour railings, pillars and lamp posts. They also include cleaning and repainting the Quay Market structure.

There are many more ideas and you can find these on our Consultations webpage on our website (www.torbay.gov.uk). 

We ran our first in person engagement event last weekend, and if you didn’t manage to make it, I really urge you to come along to the Scala Hall on Friday February 21 between 10 am and 2 pm. You can let us know your thoughts about these ideas.

SWISCo are due to start work on delivering the improvements this spring. They will make sure improvement and installation work will be carried out in phases, ensuring it does not impact on spring and early summer events.

Looking wider, we are also working with our Regeneration Partners - Willmott Dixon and Milligan, about developing two major sites within Brixham.

The first is the Brixham Port Infrastructure Project, which is looking at providing 2,550sqm of new space for the fishing industry. The expansion of the port would create around 40 new fishing related jobs and will be funded by £9.791 million of government funding which has already been secured.

The second will be to improve Brixham Town Centre car park. The original multi-storey car park was constructed in the early 1960s. It suffered deterioration because of marine weathering, leading to significant corrosion of the steel frame. Despite several phases of structural repair, it was demolished in 2005. We are currently looking at the financially viable options for the site and along with this and the Fishing Port, detailed proposals will be shared with you later in the spring.

There will, of course, be opportunities for all to comment on the proposals as part of the statutory planning process.