Plans for Port Royal: anticipating a Regeneration Board >> Scoping Study consultants' final report presented to Reference Group > more in the press

News out today:
Futures Forum: Plans for Port Royal: anticipating a Regeneration Board >> Scoping Study consultants' final report presented to Reference Group > press release

With more in the news:

Report on renewal of Port Royal unlikely before next year

PUBLISHED: 13:54 16 October 2017 | UPDATED: 13:54 16 October 2017

Stephen Sumner

The Sidmouth Lifeboat station, sailing club and Drill Hall at Port Royal

A report on the potential redevelopment of a sensitive site on Sidmouth seafront will not be made public until next year.

The delay in publication of the scoping study document is because the consultant has requested more residents’ views and those of the Port Royal reference group – which concluded that a single large building would be ‘entirely inappropriate’ for the location.

The study was commissioned by Sidmouth Town Council and East Devon District Council. A spokesman said: “There was a robust and frank debate and the reference group members clearly reflected the strength of public opinion – expressed through the public consultation and the recent Neighbourhood Plan report – that a single large and high building covering the seafront footprint at Port Royal would be entirely inappropriate for this sensitive site.

“There was a strongly held view that commercial benefits could be achieved whilst still meeting community aspirations, as well as realising benefits for Sidmouth’s economy and tourism. Further options needed to be examined.

“Having heard the debate and views of the reference group in connection with the draft, the consultant has requested further time to refine the study report and in particular to detail recommendations about further investigations in respect of flooding and covenants.

“The final report will be considered by the councils jointly, at which time it will be made public. Given the request from the consultant, the report will not meet November council meeting deadlines, but it is expected that this will come forward early in the new year.”

Reference group chairman Councillor Jeff Turner thanked its members and their respective organisations for their participation and thanked the public for their input.

Cllr Cathy Gardner, who jointly led the ‘Three Rs’ campaign to retain, refurbish and re-use existing buildings at Port Royal, said: “I’m delighted that the reference group has reacted to the views of residents and the consultant will reconsider their recommendations.

“The redevelopment of this area of town is important to all of us and a chance to do something wonderful for the town.

“The Three Rs campaign group will be working to encourage a community-based solution that makes the most of the heritage of the area without over-commercialisation.”

Report on renewal of Port Royal unlikely before next year - Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

Plus comment on the EDW blog:
Independent East Devon Alliance councillors spearhead rethink on Port Royal development | East Devon Watch 

And the Sidmouth Drill Hall Rescue site:

Dear Friends, I wanted to let you know as soon as possible that Sidmouth Town Council has released some news about Port Royal. The Port Royal Reference Group, made up of a number Councillors and representatives from the town, met with the Consultants, EDDC Regeneration management representatives, and others, on Thursday 5th Oct. The notes from that meeting have been put online today as has the raw data from the Survey. I am not sure why it has taken 10 days to get these notes online ( they are not formal minutes of the meeting) but they may have been holding off until they had the Press Release agreed. Press Release Reference Group Notes The link to the raw survey data.can be found on this page , second line down in the Consultation Results box. This is in Excel format and quite difficult to read. ( If you don't have Excel but instead use Open Office then don't bother trying to open it, it just throws an error message.) We have put it into pdf which makes it a bit more accessible but still not easy to follow. This pdf will appear on the website tomorrow. Please check the blog ( which also posts to Twitter and Facebook) for further information soon. I will post once I have managed to extract some sensible info from the data. If we are to keep up the effect we are having it needs us all to understand as much about what is going on as we can. We need you to read things from STC and from the 'Rescue' website and to pass the information on to as many others as possible. I feel that this decision to look into things far more carefully and make information clearer is a good response to our interest. Keep it up! kind regards, Mary

Encouraging news Oct 2017
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