Sally Allen: Concerns raised over impact of planning decisions on Torbay heritage

I care very deeply about the town where I was born, Torquay and its surrounding area. Torbay and Dartmoor were fantastic areas to be brought up in and they hold so many glorious memories.

Sadly, I am continually seeing more and more of what made Torbay special and why it was awarded the soubriquet, the Queen of the English Riviera, destroyed. I am at a loss as to why most of the highly questionable decisions were, and are currently, being made.

When the Riviera International Centre was built, there was clearly an absence of any commercial thought put into the development. It was, and is, too small to cater for conferences that could attract an average sized conference to the Bay. 

It was a huge commercial mistake as the size of the land available at the time could have accommodated a centre that would have attracted big and lucrative business and kept Torbay’s lifeline of tourism going even into the depths of winter.

Sadly, we bulldoze our heritage with great alacrity. I have no idea why this is ever thought to be a good idea. 

Progress is still possible without destroying why tourists are attracted to visit places like Bath, Chester with its medieval shopping galleries and Brighton with The Lanes, now one of the most successful heritage shopping areas in the UK, drawing millions of visitors each year. All proof that you can keep facades and use modern infrastructure. 

Why on earth would you want to go to Torquay or Paignton and wander around Fleet Street, Union Street or Torbay Road? Fortunately, we are so lucky that Brixham has retained its charm and let’s hope it continues to do so.

Torbay is the most fortunate area in the UK as it is the birthplace of the world’s greatest and most prolific author, Agatha Christie. 

I am sure that the other seaside resorts around the UK would kill for such a brilliant international marketing weapon. Yet for years this fact has been largely overlooked, until Matt Newbury took over the Agatha Christie Festival as creative director in 2023. He is now doing a great job and taking the event from strength to strength, but there is still so much more we can do to elevate Torbay.

As we all know to our horror, Agatha Christie’s childhood home in Torquay, Ashfield, a large Victorian mansion on Barton Road where she was born in 1890 and lived during her early life, was bulldozed. 

To quote the Italian Captain Alberto Bertorelli in ‘Allo ‘Allo!, “whata mistaka to maka”. This could have been a sacred destination for the millions and millions of global Christie fans. It could have been a global heritage asset.

Agatha Christie herself sold the house (reluctantly) in 1940 due to financial pressures and changing circumstances. The property later changed owners. Then, in 1961–1962 the house was demolished by developers so the land could be turned into a small housing estate. Clearly this had to go through the planning department at the council, so yet another own goal. 

Another huge mistake was the demolition of The Royal Torbay Marine Spa, built in 1853 during Torquay’s Victorian boom as a fashionable seaside resort. It was designed to attract wealthy visitors seeking health treatments and sea-air cures. 

The spa offered salt-water baths and therapeutic treatments, which Victorians believed had healing properties. Then in 1971, after a child drowned in a tragic accident, it was bulldozed. I understand the trauma but it wasn’t the fault of the building or the town. Just imagine how hugely successful it would be today with the world’s obsession with spa treatments! 

Mistakes happen, I understand and sympathise, but anyone who continues to compound the problems of old with more and more bad, ill-thought through and insensitive decisions makes the process not fit for purpose.

Which brings me neatly on to Singleton Gardens, a place where I used to go on a daily basis with my grandmother when she purchased fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers for her hotels. 

It was such a charming place to go to. I remember the stable door and the huge bell to ring for service. It was a special place. 

Now of course there are plans for seven flats to be built on this historic site of a Victorian walled garden in a conservation area. 

The plans have been contentious to put it mildly and, most importantly, previously refused, “given the siting, scale, massing and design, the development would fail to relate to the Lincombes Conservation Area”. 

In dismissing the subsequent appeal from the developer, the planning inspector stated: “The adverse impacts would not be outweighed by the benefits, there would be conflict with the overall provisions of the development plan.”

Now with one casting vote at the last planning meeting, it was agreed. This is against the decision to refuse planning by the Bristol Inspectorate and far more local residents lodging an appeal against the development, than those for it, on the planning portal. 

So presumably the planners do not listen to the public. This could be one of the fundamental flaws in their process – such as it is. It appears that democracy had been abandoned at the council and surely such an important planning decision should not be decided by one vote alone. A majority vote should be de rigueur. Everything now hangs on the intervention of the secretary of state.

As chair of the Torbay Civic Society, I strongly believe we should put more value on our heritage and what it can help us achieve in the future, particularly in tourism. Currently, in addition to our blue plaques, we are developing ‘green plaques’ for our very special public green spaces as we believe that they should be celebrated too. Alongside this we are developing a ‘heritage app’ to inform residents and tourists about our heritage trails. We need to encourage tourists to visit and make it easier for them to find our hidden gems, what’s left of them.

More tourists and their money coming into the town allows for more money to be spent on social housing and other services and is critical for our hospitality businesses to flourish. 

It is critical to make money before you can spend it. Ergo, knocking down attractions which can be utilised as heritage gems is a nonsense and dereliction of duty; and smacks of huge incompetence and lack of foresight.

If you are interested in informative lectures, finding out ways you can support the heritage of Torbay and making new friends, please come and join the Torbay Civic Society, currently only £10 a year! 

This year we are celebrating our 50th anniversary so we are planning some special events and special speakers. 

Our next speaker, at 10am on Friday, March 27 at the Palace Theatre in Paignton, is Ashley Wood from Sutton Seeds, who will be taking us through their 226-year history and telling us about their royal warrants.

Together we can try and protect Torbay’s gems and celebrate why the area is so special.