Sally Allen: Regeneration is welcome but it has prompted major questions

I have to come clean and own up to being one of Jim Parker’s ‘moaners and groaners’.

This is not because I am negative about development in the Bay, I am all for it. Afterall, it is in desperate need to having new life breathed back into it.

At the moment it feels like the town is on life support. So, I agree, Torbay needs it and I celebrate and support that.

However, I do have a serious moan and groan about the often lack of thought regarding that development, particularly when there appears to be no thought given for supporting infrastructure.

An obvious example being the two new hotels just behind Torwood Street on the Terrace, where parking was halved to enable the building of the Premier Inn. Now the reduced parking space has to cater for the Hampton Hilton Hotel, the Premier Inn and the few shoppers who venture out these days.

Personally, I don’t understand the plans for the Debenham building. There are still two well-appointed large vacant units in Torwood Street underneath the Hampton Hilton, which have now been empty for a few years.

They both offer great facilities in size and position for a restaurant or shop, but, as far as I am aware, no companies are interested in them.

The new plans for the Debenham site are going to provide five additional large retail units, possibly to end up being boarded-up like the ones in Torwood Street and the large number in the town. I sincerely hope I am wrong and they have already been let off-plan, but somehow, I doubt it.

I imagine that the proposed 16 x 2-bedroom flats above should sell quickly, but where will the residents park? What if there are two cars to every flat? Not unreasonable to surmise these days.

Equally, the proposed vast promenade outside the new venture is surely just going to give double the space already used for rough sleepers. It is going to prove quite a job in the summer months keeping it clear of litter and the homeless. 

I was born here and love this area dearly and I am very pleased that I came back to live 12 years ago, but the demise has been shocking in the interim years. I so want to see the town thriving again, and please don’t tell me that the Internet and e-commerce are to blame for our empty streets.

Obviously, shopping has been made easier via the Internet but the main reason is that our town centre is frankly a disgrace. It is not welcoming and it has become ugly. Most important of all, there is NO PARKING.

I promise you that if the town was opened up to traffic – top to bottom – with parking on at least one side of the road, businesses and shoppers would come back. This is an ageing society and therefore easy parking is a priority, and not in some distant car park, which is a hike from the shops. Across the country, towns and cities have increasing numbers of businesses boarded up due to traffic-control measures introduced by local authorities. When will the penny drop; lack of parking and pedestrian precincts kill business.

I know that there are numerous consultations, but the findings certainly don’t agree with the thoughts of everyone I speak to. What about publishing the findings to stimulate debate before making decisions? The very least that councillors should do is to learn from some of the previously glaring mistakes; and there have been a huge number. 

Jim says, and I quote “that Torbay Council and its private sector partners have more than £200m to spend on changing the look and future of the Bay over the next few years and, in some cases, few months”.

In which case, why hasn’t the Pavilion been covered with a giant tarpaulin? Doing it would provide, at the very least, a cost-effective sticking plaster to halt further rain damage to this architectural gem until restoration work can be carried out, particularly with the biblical rainstorms we are having.

Obviously, I don’t have the space here to cover all the concerns people have, so I will focus on the most burning, visible and important ones. The most important one to me, is the site of the former Palace Hotel in Torquay. This is a fabulous and extensive piece of land that was, and is, the ideal location for a 5-star hotel. 

The Fragrance Group bought the hotel in 2017 as part of £150m plans for the land in Babbacombe Road. Originally those plans included building a new luxury five-star Palace Hotel as well as new homes, including a proportion of affordable homes. In April of last year, it was confirmed the hotel plans had been ditched because it was no longer a financially viable option and that new plans for additional housing would be submitted instead.

In the meantime, 37 so-called luxury, seriously ugly rabbit hutches have been built on the land where once stood the celebrated tennis courts and leisure centre.

This is beyond a horror story, but thankfully David Thomas, leader of the Council, has confirmed that there is no way that planning permission will be granted for more homes on the main site. So, what is going to happen and what are the plans or proposals?

It was always my understanding at the outset of this debacle, that the Fragrance Group had to build the hotel first before they could start on the houses. A sensible deal, but why not enforced? Or have I got it all wrong? Quite possibly, but if so, what is the deal we are left with? Surely the Fragrance Group can’t just walk away and say sorry?

I would have thought that those in power at the time who struck the deal would have have included an enforceable clause in the contract. Not rocket science, just basic good business practice. Surely something positive can be retrieved from the cinders?

In this column I have often asked questions, but very sadly have not received any answers, so this time I would like to ask the questions directly to David Thomas. David, please give us answers to these questions in your column or direct to me on Facebook. Some answers maybe good and some explanations might put our minds at rest.

Equally if things are bad, delayed or impossible we ought to know and know why. We are not children and we do pay your and our MP’s wages, so I do think that we are entitled to have the answers. I know that I am not alone because everyone I know, as well as all the strangers who come up and speak to me in the street, all have the same concerns.

Some of the answers maybe glaringly obvious and it is just that we are not informed. Either way, please let us know – and Jim, I am definitely on your side, but sometimes moaners and groaners deserve to be listened to as we are all after the same positive outcome for our beautiful Bay.