Jim Parker: Time to stop Oldway becoming our 'Palace of Tears'

Time to stop Oldway becoming our 'Palace of Tears'
I knew the story had a touch of deja vu about it.
The subject was Oldway Mansion. Doing the talking was former elected Mayor Gordon Oliver. The topic - the future of the mansion which once stood gracefully in its grounds in Paignton as the Singer family's English version of the Palace of Versailles. Take a look at it now but don't linger too long, it may make you want to weep.
Since Torbay Council closed its offices at Oldway in 2013, it has been left empty. Dry rot has set in and a restoration bill has been estimated at £40 million!
Former mayor Mr Oliver has urged the local authority to speed up decisions on its future before the rot literally sets in and there is no future.
He says it could be time to talk about selling the mansion off again, with some of its outbuildings developed for housing.
Council deputy leader Chris Lewis warned last week that the council would have to ‘think outside the box’ and consider housing as part of the Oldway package for the future.
Now Mr Oliver says he would have preferred to sell the whole building on a long lease, while converting it into a mixture of luxury flats and apartments which would also be marketed on long leases.
He first proposed disposing of it while he was the bay’s elected mayor in 2018, but the move was rejected by councillors, and the following year a charitable trust was set up to investigate ways of reopening it.
Mr Oliver said: “Oldway is a huge property with approximately 200 rooms, is Grade II listed and set in 14 acres. It has had treatment for dry rot, it still has to be heated in winter, the grounds have to be maintained, the property still has to be insured and it has to be made totally secure in case of fire. The renovation has got to involve, at some stage, private sector investment.”
He said it was vital that the grounds should remain open to the public, along with the mansion’s famous ornamental staircase. The ballroom and public rooms should stay open for events and weddings, and should include a ‘quality’ restaurant.
“It would be a prestige development which would attract many purchasers who want a slice of history,” said Mr Oliver.
“The outbuildings, which I preserved from collapse by getting the Torbay Development Agency to erect scaffolding, could be quite an attractive housing development with shared ownership, key worker and similar developments which would be extremely popular.
“Fortunately it has a good roof on it but the dry rot, if not cured properly, is a great worry.
“Applying for grants from various public bodies will never be sufficient due to its size but the longer we leave a decision on it the greater the cost and the greater the risk to the structure.”
As I say, Mr Oliver's sell-off idea is not a new one. He first broached the subject over five years ago which just shows just how far we have or, in this case, haven't come.
Back then Cllr Lewis and other councillors won the argument that then mayor alone couldn't make the decision to flog Oldway off his own bat and the idea kind of died a natural.
Plans by developer Akkeron to turn the mansion into £10million 85-bed boutique hotel, and build around 160 homes in the grounds also fell through just three years after the council workers left.
To also come full circle, it now looks as if a deal with a private developer may be the only way to save Oldway and it's Cllr Lewis and the new Tory regime which has just taken over the reigns at the Town Hall saying that - although some kind of joint venture partnership with a private developer may be the way ahead rather than an outright sale.
Cllr Lewis says: "My view now is that we simply cannot do this on our own. We have to find a joint venture partner to do it.
"It is going to cost at least £40 million. The reality is we may get between £3million and £10 million from outside bodies like the Lottery etc but we would still have to find £30 million. Everybody wants to keep the mansion but Torbay Council cannot do this on our own."
The future of the mansion is currently out for public consultation. Cllr Lewis says: "We shall see what the consultation says. The next step is to phase it so we can get them mansion open as soon as possible.
"We need a detailed plan for the way forward. I am not in favour of doing it piecemeal. You need a 10-year plan to know how you are going to do it.
"The first thing is to make the mansion wind and water tight. It has deteriorated quite a bit over the last four years."
He revealed: "Everybody is in favour of keeping it as a wedding venue. You could have catering facilities that go with it. The other possibility is a hotel again or somebody who wants to have a UK HQ
"We are talking to people but the trouble is the £40 million."
A similar scenario is being played out across the Bay with the forlorn Pavilion in Torquay where latest repair bills are understood to be around the £12 million mark.
Cllr Lewis says: "Everything has been tried at the Pavilion but nothing has worked."
He says the main issue with these regeneration project is that there is no 'end user'. There is no point ploughing millions of pounds into a scheme when there is nobody driving it forward at the end!
But Cllr Lewis is insistent with instances like this: "To do nothing is not an option."
We simply cannot keep going round in circles letting the years go by with nothing happening and the likes of Oldway becoming the Palace of Tears and the Pavilion a sinking wreck.
Now is the Time for somebody to grows some and, if needs be, make some difficult decisions.....