Perhaps the best news to start 2026 is the word "vision" is back in vogue in the Town Hall.
Those with a good memory might recall the Mayoral Vision for a New English Riviera was launched nearly twenty years ago & acted as a catalyst for numerous projects in the Bay as well as an effective & innovative way of putting the place on the map.
The authors of this vision LDA Design went on to win accolades for their input into the creation of the Olympic Park in East London. Yours Truly who put his name to it was subsequently given the Order of the Boot & my successor, according to rumour, actually banned the use of the V word in the Town Hall. It certainly disappeared from any documents produced during his term of office.
For me the word vision is fairly interchangeable with "ambition" & the idea was to show in the broadest terms what the future of Torbay might be like. Then as now there were plenty of sites which had become rundown & would benefit from investment.
Although there was local consultation & well attended "visioning days" one of the great benefits of having external advisors, albeit only up the road in Exeter, was that they could see the potential of the place & more effective land use.
In their many presentations they pointed out how the Bay had sprawled over the years & the focus on what made it special, our coastal setting & stunning natural environment, had got lost. Therefore the Mayoral Vision emphasised underused waterfront sites & our town centres as suitable places for investment & regeneration.
At the same time, we pursued the accolade of
Geopark status & Torbay became one of the first urban UNESCO accredited Geoparks in the world. I believe this was complementary to the Mayoral Vision & a further way of highlighting what makes this place special.
Now things have come full circle & we have recently approved individual visions for each of the three towns plus an overarching vision for the entire Bay.
Then as now we have highlighted sites where investment would be welcome. We have set this in context with projects which are already under way together with suggestions of "nice to do" improvements to the public realm as well as showing how different sites might be better connected.
Both private investors & public bodies who fund major regeneration initiatives want to understand their projects are much more than "stand alone" schemes & will be a part of something more ambitious. They will want to know about housing plans (folk need somewhere to live), transport arrangements (how are people going to get there) & what the cultural "vibe" of the place might be like.
All work & no play would make a dull sort of place, especially for somewhere which desperately needs to attract & retain a younger working age population.
This was made plain to me when I signed up for the finance for the new Fish Quay & employment spaces in Brixham. Although Torbay Council contributed about a third of the cost of the scheme, the remainder was European (don't get me started) & UK Government funding.
All this was administered by the Regional Development Agency (since disbanded) who insisted this project had to be a part of a much broader ambition for the regeneration of the town. It was therefore more than useful to be able to point out everything else which was planned for Brixham, which I believe is now one of the most improved towns in Devon.
The new Fish Quay, opened by the Princess Royal in 2011, has been a huge success & has provided the opportunity for a renaissance in fisheries. Our new vision supports a further expansion in facilities.
In Paignton the Mayoral Vision suggested a
play park on the Sea Front, which turned out to be a controversial idea once this plan looked as though it might become a reality. Please don't ask me to explain why?
When we eventually got to the grand opening & I had the pleasure of meeting the representative from the funding organisation, he explained they had only remained committed to the project because it was a part of the "vision" for the future of the town. They felt they were contributing to something more important than a stand alone play park. He made my day.
Now we need to embrace these new visions for the Torbay towns & see them as positive in terms of securing much needed investment & regeneration. It has been made clear these are living documents which can evolve over time. Looking back at "my" vision I can see things which wouldn't have worked out.
For example there were exciting concepts for development at the Strand, Torquay, where the Council has now acquired the old Debenhams building & where
detailed plans for a new top notch hotel are likely to come forward in the next few months.
But "my" vision suggested a new Debenhams department store would be built in the upper part of Union Street, extending back towards Abbey Road. There's simply no way anything like this would happen now & given trends in retailing it's much more sensible to introduce more housing into our town centres, which is exactly what is proposed for Union Square &
Crossways, Paignton.
In my personal view it would be helpful if any vision could explain more clearly how Torbay relates to the rest of Devon & in particular the rapidly growing urban areas of Teignbridge, Exeter & East Devon. In the Mayoral Vision of nearly twenty years ago there's a brief mention of The South Devon Link Road, as we used to call it, as a "key infrastructure project".
Since then of course this road has been completed & we also enjoy rather more frequent train services which call at additional stations in the Exeter area. Local Government Reorganisation may link us politically with neighbouring places so it would make sense for any future vision to highlight how we can grow together.
It's not just Torbay which needs to look to the future & we are certainly not alone in facing challenges in terms of an ageing population, the need for more housing & how to create more vibrant town centres.
Perhaps the next step should be a Vision for South Devon.
Happy New Year!
