Jim Parker: Buying into the Torbay Story and 'getting it' is crucial for a new future together

Blimey, it has been a heavy week on the Torbay Story front – but well worth it!

A small team of us hit the road to try and explain to people what this new initiative is all about and, just as importantly, actually get them to buy into it.

The Torbay Story is all about telling what makes the English Riviera the great place that it is to live, work and visit.

Crucially it is to identify what the resort generally and its three towns individually have to offer – what their headlines and unique selling points are – bottle them all up and then use them to sell and promote the Bay to attract investors and entice them to spend their millions on creating a new and more prosperous, healthier and happier future for all of us.

Sounds simple and it is – but only if people from all walks of life actually get what we are trying to do and come together to support it, buy into it and help deliver it.

It is the job of a Torbay Place Leadership Board, bringing together key organisations from the public, private and community sectors, to lead and drive this from a strategic point of view, identifying, supporting and lobbying for regeneration and other projects to create new jobs, build new homes, further improve education and health services and take full advantage of our beautiful, Geopark-inspired natural environment.

But the thousands of people who live here – and are passionate and have pride in that place – have the biggest part to play by ‘championing’ the Bay, celebrating success and encouraging others to join the Torbay Story party.

We already have hundreds of Torbay Champions, who meet once every two months to listen to people who have tasted success locally and brought the Torbay Story to life.

Then we have the voice of the towns. It is absolutely essential that everybody has a chance to contribute and make sure their towns and communities are included in the Torbay Story and to pinpoint what they need and what they can bring to that party.

This week’s travels around the Bay were all about setting up ‘town boards’ to do just that with sold out meetings in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.

Many didn’t like ‘board’ tag so there may be a name change. But the most important feedback, at least up until the time of writing and public meetings in Paignton and Brixham and one to come in Torquay, was that people wanted this. They do get it.

So, too, did the local business fraternity when, with the help of chairman Steve Reynolds, we presented to the Torbay Business Forum.

What people don’t want is duplication and just talk. They want to see progress, action and delivery. We are already trying to do just that.

Other local authority areas who adopted this ‘place’ strategy several years ago presented at a recent workshop we attended in Coventry and revealed some game-changing outcomes – in Burnley people actually pay to sign up as champions as ‘bond-holders’.

The Torbay Story was central to presentations we made to six, big-spending investors at a special lunch in London.

It was a prelude to the launch of the annual UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum conference

and exhibition in Westminster that night.

Some of those investors now plan to visit the Bay to look at investment opportunities – one has already been in town. We will be attending the actual REIFF event in Leeds in May with the Torbay Story taking centre stage.

It will bring together 150 local authorities and some of the country’s and world’s biggest investors and developers. A massive opportunity to tell our story.

What I am trying to say is that this is not just some fly-by-night fad. It’s about taking this, our Torbay Story, seriously. And that means all of us because #nowisthetime for that new future.