Hollicombe Action Group

 

Mayor Bye’s new vision for Torbay flies in the face of Torbay’s Local Development Framework which clearly promises in its Urban Design Guide (paragraphs 1,2,1 and 1.2.2) that the landscape setting of Torbay and its coastal settlements will be protected from any development that would harm or detract from local character and its distinctiveness. The UDG clearly states that priority would be accorded to maintaining the rural landscape surrounding the three towns and the green wedges which lie between them.

If the planners are honest in their intention to improve Torbay’s image as the English Riviera, then the green wedge of Hollicombe and its wildlife, being only yards from the seashore, is of great importance to the coastal area of Torbay, and to fit the framework of the planning criteria this green wedge has to be seen as a natural park stretching down to an attractive sheltered cove. And although the main Torquay to Paignton road would run through the park, this connection problem could be overcome with a pedestrian fly-over such as at Torre Abbey Sands. As stated in paragraph 1.2.2, Hollicombe as a park would be the right use of land in the right place. Should this site be given over to developing blocks of holiday flats, or any other building, the English Riviera will have lost a priceless and exceptional wedge of open space, its character and distinctiveness gone forever!

Peggy Parnell