Jim Parker: More are taking a punt on doing business in our developing town

Taking a gondola in Venice. Picture Credit: LunarSeaArt on Pixabay

Reporter:

Jim Parker

28 Mar 2024 6:00 PM

Email:

torbayweekly@clearskypublishing.co.uk

Just back from a long weekend in Venice - it was a combined Christmas and birthday present for my wife before some of you start wondering.....

It was a brilliant place full of rich heritage and history, magnificent cathedrals and buildings, craftsmanship, restaurants, dozens and dozens of independent shops, a breathtaking landscape and scenery plus a couple of rude bus drivers (but we won't go there!).

It also has its fair share of derelict or rundown and eyesore buildings, empty shops and homeless people as well as beggars.

Now I know it would be ridiculous to compare the English Riviera with the City of Gondolas (yep, we did one on the last day) - a taxi driver told us Venice attracts 24 million visitors during the summer for a start. But there are some similarities on a far, far smaller scale. Like Torbay, Venice also has its problems if you go looking for them and focus on them. Sometimes we forget the good bits and the fact that there is much to celebrate in a more positive way - and some people are still keen to invest in what we take for granted.

We all know that Torquay's town centre and high street could do with a good dose of the old pick-me-up tonic. But I am obliged to Torbay Weekly reader Lawrence Roots for a bit of detective work to prove it's not all bad down town . He says: "I was doing a bit of digging around online and wanted to share news of multiple businesses coming soon to Torquay: Some seem to focus on negative news in the bay so I'm hoping there is room for a more positive perspective from the Torbay Weekly.

Investments and new business include a former fish and chips shop in Fleet Street which a couple from York have taken on. Evidently the plan is to turn it into a new Italian restaurant called Viaggio, which means 'your delightful journey'. An extensive renovations and remodelling project is planned for the property to return it to its former glory when it was known to thousands of locals as Macari’s going back to the early 1970s.

UK disability charity Sense have been advertising for a manager for their new base at 34-36 Union Street, previously the H. Samuel jewellers that closed last year.

A new local Premier convenience store will be opening also in Union Street in a unit which previously hosted a Rowcroft Hospice charity shop, which closed in 2020.

A new ladies fashion store has also opened in the main Union Street where at least two other premises are 'under offer'.

It looks like a new arcade-type business is being lined up for the former Ladbrokes betting shop on the harbour.

And I am not going to spoil Torquay town jeweller David Rowe's sparkling plans for the former Pandora store half way down the town. Lawrence says: "Given the current economic climate, having these new businesses coming to Torquay's high street is a significant sign of renewed confidence in the town, in my view."

A spokesman for commercial agents Bettesworths, who have handled a lot of these deals, said: "A good start for 2024 considering how low retail demand was last year." Now all that that remains is for well-established Fleet Street jeweller John Doble for his dream of reopening the River Fleet which runs under the town and we could be quits

I could fetch out me Gondola!

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