Regenerating Exmouth seafront: "control of the process will remain with the Exmouth Regeneration Board "

There have been a lot of bad feelings generated over the badly handled 'regeneration' of Exmouth's seafront:
Futures Forum: Regenerating Exmouth seafront: "the council have not done anything to progress the development of the site"
Futures Forum: Regenerating Exmouth seafront: development vs World Heritage Site status
Futures Forum: Regeneration in East Devon: "It’s a pity that a small band of protesters seem to want to whip up opposition to our regeneration proposals by making frequently mischievous accusations."

In their latest monthly newsletter, Transition Exmouth report on a meeting they had with District Cllr Skinner, lead for the Regeneration Board:

Sustainable Exmouth

Andy Lock and myself met with Cllr. Philip Skinner to discuss the Developer-free visioning exercise that he is committed to for Queens Drive Stage 3. Cllr Skinner heads up the Exmouth Regeneration Board and is the man to engage with if we want to influence what happens next.

Our pitch was essentially that which we have promoted for several years and which Andy clearly spelt out in his presentation to Exmouth Town Council as long ago as 2014.

Andy has very fond childhood memories of ‘Swan Lake’ and the Harbour View cafe features in his family’s history but we stuck to our brief, steering away from controversial aspects of this much criticised project, and keeping the dialogue positive.

The meeting lasted three hours and Cllr. Skinner was more open to our suggestions on sustainability than we could have hoped. There does seem to have been a sea-change in EDDC’s approach to this development and for that credit must go to the many concerned parties who have been vocal in their criticism over the years.

We felt it important to make sure Cllr. Skinner understands the mountain that he has to climb if he has to gain the trust of people in the town and Andy stressed the pervading distrust of EDDC and it’s officers. Cllr. Skinner stressed that control of the process will remain with the Exmouth Regeneration Board so let us see what the next steps are to be.

No matter how welcome the Town might be to the ideas to be formulated by the Vision process, the crunch will come in finding a developer to put up the money!

Grenadier Application Coming Soon

Following last Month’s consultation, Andy Lock and myself wrote Transition Exmouth's 'official' response, which was essentially positive. We will get this on the Website when Rob is settled but in the meantime I can send it out on request. We hear that Grenadier are taking longer than expected to process all the consultation responses but still their formal planning application is expected very soon.

www.transitionexmouth.uk
Newsletter Archive and Subscribe form
.
.
.