Sally Allen: 'Avaricious developers' ruining Bay's natural beauty

Apologies before I start as I am aware that I should try to concentrate on the positives in Torbay, but some things need to be called out for their total lack of sympatico to their surrounding areas.

When an unthinking and/or avaricious developer just takes a wrecking ball to natural beauty; it does get my dander up!

There are a couple of planning issues which have caught my eye this week, and sadly neither of them is remotely positive. The first is the truly ghastly and beyond ugly edifice on the seafront masquerading as a new 4-star hotel. It is remarkably referred to by Devon Live as ‘stunning’! Well, I am stunned, but it is certainly not stunning in any positive way. It is a true blot on the landscape, and I think both the planners who allowed the monstrosity to be built, and the architects responsible should be mightily ashamed.

On social media the comparison to the ‘Bibby Stockholm’ is irresistible and is creating much fun and numerous wise cracks. This isn’t surprising as the three-storey barracks barge which was to be the temporary home for asylum seekers, is a dead ringer for the new hotel. 

This new eyesore is literally squashed onto a site far too small and has ruined the view and value of the houses and flats behind it. 

So, personally I have no idea what it has going for it – and whoever chose the ghastly orange panels, which makes the building look like a second-rate municipal carpark, should not be allowed near any potential designs in the foreseeable future. 

Very sadly of course this is all now a fait accompli and virtually done and dusted, so we are all going to have to live with it. I just hope that it turns out to be successful in the long term.

Meanwhile, in Wellswood, passions are running high for another planning-related reason. I have been contacted by many frustrated and angry residents about the goings on at Singleton Gardens over the holiday weekend, during which time it would appear that an historic building has been bulldozed. I am truly flummoxed about it, so I hope someone can explain to me how a developer has, as the residents claim, apparently strayed from the actual planning permission which was passed.

 For the record, the approved planning permission for the site is as follows:

“P/2023/0994 | Extensions & alterations to the existing dwelling including demolition of existing extensions, formation of two storey and single storey extensions, roof alterations and replacement fenestration. Demolition of greenhouse & outbuilding, landscaping and associated works. | Singleton Gardens Meadfoot Sea Road Torquay TQ1 2LQ”.

It would appear that the developer has demolished the entire gardener’s cottage at Singleton Gardens instead of just the extension. 

This is in addition to the developer’s partial demolition of the Grade II historic listed wall on Lincombe Drive, which occurred over the winter of 2022/23, which was raised at the time by the then MP Kevin Foster. 

In addition, the Council has not appeared to step in when the developer partially rebuilt that wall allegedly using incorrect materials last summer and then compounded the problem by the installation of a wide modern gate for the creation of a vehicular entrance way, where there previously was only pedestrian access. 

Meanwhile, in another area of Wellswood, and in what seems like a clear case of double standards, local resident, Philip Stafford is in serious trouble with the Council for replacing an existing gate in the Warberries Conservation Area, work which was required because the original gate suffered root damage from a tree on the pavement that the Council had not dealt with. 

He had not tampered with the wall at all. There appears to be one set of rules for developers and another for residents who are respectful of their environment.

Residents have by now lodged numerous complaints to the council on this. They have also made their concerns known to the two ward councillors, Hazel Foster and Nick Bye, who evidently claim there is nothing they can do. So there still hasn’t been any intervention to stop, or pause, the development of this historic site.

One of the residents, David Redman said: “Heritage on a skip! Once Heritage and Culture is lost, we are a society of nobodies, a lost civilisation.”

We have a wonderful and historic bay with a rich past, but our gems are diminishing like snow in summer. 

We will never get them back, so isn’t it time to call a halt and say enough is enough and try to ensure that new developments are sympathetically designed to enhance our beautiful scenery rather than diminish it. 

You only have to look at the ‘three ugly sisters’ overlooking the harbour to see that a little more thought might have created something a little more Portofino, rather than the soleless edifices that were created in the 1960s. 

The flats are lovely and very spacious inside, so wonderful to look out of, but I believe we should also take great care to how a building looks externally, because that is all most of us will ever see

The great positive to end with, is that at long last the severely overlooked and uncared for Pavilion, built in 1911, is now looking to be restored to its former glory. 

Born in 1890, our most celebrated resident, Agatha Christie, must have seen the Pavilion being built and there is a photo of her somewhere roller skating on the promenade beside it. 

What a travesty it would have been if the proposed plans to build a block of flats and a hotel onto this beautiful building had succeeded. 

Thank heavens good sense prevailed a few years ago. My dearest hope is that the proposed development of the Pavilion showcasing an Agatha Christie Research and Visitor Centre comes to fruition.