Jim Parker: People have a right to challenge funding, but for sake of the Bay 'please, don 't rock the boat'

It was just a throwaway line from Chris Lewis in his speech to open this year’s Riviera Connect event but it was a hugely important one.

The deputy council leader, who is also in charge of Torbay’s £400million public/private partnership regeneration programme, was telling business and tourism leaders at the Expo where the Bay was on some of the game-changing projects making up that programme.

The redevelopment of the Union Square shopping centre to help give the kiss of life to ailing Torquay town centre is one of the biggest pieces in the regeneration jigsaw puzzle with long-awaited plans for a health hub, social housing and a new indoor market.

Torbay Council and its private sector partners Milligan and Wilmott Dixon have been negotiating with the NHS and their support for yonks.

In a ‘hot-off-the-press’ moment, Cllr Lewis told the Riviera International Centre breakfast audience: “The NHS has agreed to take space including a GP surgery and have signed Heads of Term.”

The significance of that announcement cannot be under-stated. The NHS commitment will be a huge catalyst towards the start of phase one of the scheme which will include a health hub, GP surgery and 100 new homes, including social housing.

Cllr Lewis told me later: “The NHS have signed Heads of Terms for the Union Square development. There are still negotiations with Homes England and other investors and we are pulling finances together, but this is great news.”

His state of the nation report also emphasised the importance of ‘partnerships and collaboration’ which are ‘key to delivering lasting change’.

He added: “Since Torbay Council entered its regeneration partnership with Willmott Dixon and Milligan in November 2023, the partnership’s main achievement has been moving a number of long-standing regeneration schemes from concept and funding stages towards deliverable projects.

“In 2023 we knew that we couldn’t deliver on our own. Hence the Partnership with Willmott Dixon/Milligan – they are the experts in major Regeneration Projects.”

As well as the Union Square news, Cllr Lewis gave an update on other projects including a care home complex at the former Crossways shopping centre in Paignton ‘starting this month’ ; the completion of a new-look Torquay harbourside, The Strand hotel with planning permission being given; expansion of Brixham Fish Market; planning applications in development for Brixham town centre; ‘emerging projects’ for Victoria Centre and the Gateway in Paignton (most of Victoria Square has been cleared to make way for affordable housing and a new car park on the Paignton Gateway site near the train station).

He talked of other significant projects being delivered across the Bay - the Paignton and Preston Waterfront scheme, restoration of the historic Paignton Picture House and providing much-needed new homes for local people.

He also mentioned the work taking place at the Pavilion and Oldway Mansion. Cllr Lewis said: “Much of the last three years has been spent undertaking the essential behind-the-scenes work needed to bring complex projects forward.

“That groundwork is now paying off. If the past few years have been about planning and preparation, 2027 will be the year people start to see transformation taking shape on the ground, with cranes on site and major developments moving into delivery.

“We have always said it will take time – we promised to deliver and we are delivering. Any visitor coming back in five to ten years time will not recognise Torbay – it will be transformed for the better.”

Representatives of the council and Milligan and Willmott Dixon gave a similar, impressive breakdown at the Expo.

But just as the applause died down a story broke about those very regeneration projects and how they were being funded.

Opposition councillors pointed to the £7 million sell-off of Torbay Council assets including a farm shop and cafe, an old school building in Paignton and a lodge alongside Torre Abbey which was described as a ‘desperate move’ to fill a ‘black hole’ in the budget.

The council revealed it hoped to raise more than £7.3million through the sale of Occombe Farm; Edginswell Park; housing land at Preston Down Road; the Polsham Centre in Paignton; Torre Abbey Lodge; St Kilda Cottage in Brixham and Halswell House in Paignton.

It also plans to re-distribute £1.5million of the ‘Town Deal’ government funding which had been earmarked for the Pavilion project in Torquay.

“I don’t remember destroying our heritage being in the Conservative manifesto,” said Liberal Democrat councillor Cordelia Law. And Lib Dem group leader Swithin Long claimed the Tory administration was ‘juggling money in an act of desperation’.

But Cllr Lewis said the so-called sell-off was a ‘positive’ move for the bay and the criticism was unfair.

He said Occombe Farm had been taken on by Greendale and had been successfully reopened, he added. Edginswell Park had been bought by Torbay Hospital for future use and money raised by selling the Preston Down Road land had gone towards the Crossways project in Paignton.

The Polsham Centre would create much-needed housing, said Cllr Lewis, and the St Kilda cottage had been used by workers building homes next door and was no longer needed. Halswell House in Paignton has been derelict for some years, he said.

As for Town Deal funds, he said they would always go to the project that most needed them, and money ring-fenced for the Pavilion would stay there.

The Torre Abbey lodge, he added, was a run-down Victorian building outside the curtilage of the abbey which had been empty for years.

Cllr Law has insisted the Conservatives were ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ and a financial ‘black hole’ was emerging.

Independent group leader Darren Cowell called it a ‘desperate bid’ to make sums add up for regeneration projects.

He went on: “It is deeply frustrating that none of the money being raided will be allocated for social housing schemes. In a further indication of this administration’s priorities, they are diverting £1.5m from the Pavilion to plug a funding black hole in the recently approved Strand redevelopment scheme.”

Opposition council leaders have also been informed that the Paignton and Preston Waterfront project also has an overspend of £2.819m so the money from the sale of Occombe Farm will be used to plug the gap. The opposition claimed Torbay’s ‘heritage was being sold off’.

Cllr Lewis insisted: “We have redistributed some of the money to get these projects across the line. They talk about us selling off the Bay’s heritage. Occombe Farm is not heritage, Edginswell Business Park is not heritage. St Kildas Cottage has been used as a dump during the St Kildas redevelopment project. The old school at the Polsham Centre is not heritage. And the property in Totnes Road has been empty.”

He added: “Money from the sale of the Lodge at Torre Abbey - £300,000 to £500,00 - will go towards the £3million needed for a chapel refurbishment. We have given money to the Paignton Picture House and there is still £4million in the pot for the next phase of the Pavilion work. When we get the Strand scheme across the line we can pay the £1.5million back.”

Council leader Dave Thomas said: “They talk about a black hole but there is already money from all but three of these assets”

He took the financial falling-out to another level. I personally have been privileged to see and take part in conversations with Ministers and investors as the Torbay Story has been developed and regeneration has been accepted and championed as the way ahead for the Bay by politicians of all parties and councillors

Current leader Cllr Thomas, said: “The only way we have got to the position we are in now is by Torbay being united behind one voice which investors want to see.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are blue, yellow or rainbow, we have been able to say together that regeneration has been at the core of our ambitions.

“We are now at the critical stage. Effectively, the hard nine yards have been done. Now it is about getting funds in place from investors who are excited and want to invest. Political stability is crucial.”

Opposition councillors have every right to challenge council leaders especially when it comes to precious funding and money. I know they, too, are fully behind the Bay’s regeneration programme but these are sensitive times and there is one, last plea from Cllr Thomas which will resonate with everybody desperately wanting that new future for our beautiful Bay:

“PLEASE, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ROCK THE BOAT”