New Year, new start for Bay- and how you can play a part

Here is your chance to start the New Year by helping to plan a new future for the English Riviera.

The game-changing opportunity comes via a series of special workshops being held across the three towns of the Bay next week.

It is all part of telling the Torbay Story, a new initiative to sell and promote the resort, detailing what a great place it is to live, work, visit and invest in.

And you can play a leading role in that.

The Story tells what the Bay and its three towns have to offer ranging from its Geopark-led natural environment and leisure pursuits to world pioneering hi-tech companies, fishing and food.

The Torbay Place Leadership Board is bringing together key organisations at a strategic level to speak with one voice to promote the story and Bay to potential investors.

A growing network of 'champions' are also taking up the cause, bringing the Story to life through regular events where inspirational speakers explain why pride in the Bay as a place and its people are so important for a healthier, happier and safer future.

Now it is the turn of the Town Boards to play their part - with next week's workshops as the start of that new journey.

The boards will set the agenda at a local level and make sure the voices of groups, organisations and individuals, when it comes to challenges as well as successes, are heard to fit in with that bigger over-arching picture which is captured in the Torbay Story.

The workshops are being held in Brixham, Paignton and Torquay to establish the three boards and have a say in how they are organised and set up.

The Paignton meeting is being at the Redcliffe Hotel on Monday January 9 between 6pm and 8.30pm

The Brixham meeting is being held at the Berry Head Hotel on Tuesday January 10 between 6pm and 8.30pm.

It has now been confirmed that the Torquay meeting will be held on Wednesday January11 at the Hampton by Hilton Hotel on The Terrace between 6pm and 8.30pm.

Place Leadership Board chair Jim Parker said: "These town boards - if that is what people want to call them - are absolutely crucial to this new initiative.

"We don't want anybody to feel that they are not being included and left out. The voice of the town boards is paramount to telling the Torbay Story and delivering that better future for all of us in the Bay. We all have a part to play if this is going to work. The best way to find out what we are trying to do and what is involved is to attend one of the workshops."

You can register here for the workshops:

Torquay - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/489725240377

Paignton - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/489787336107

Brixham - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/489804798337

You can also read more about the Torbay Story and how to become a Torbay Champion at www.torbaystory.co.uk