Hundreds demand protection for Brixham beauty spot car park

'For goodness sake listen to local people'

Campaigners trying to save a Brixham beauty spot from development are urging Torbay Council to do more to protect it.

The council has already declared the car park at the Breakwater an ‘asset of community value’, but more than 500 people have now signed a petition asking the council not to sell it.

The petition will be handed in at a full council meeting next week.

The car park formed a key part of a development scheme put forward last year which sparked a storm of protest in the port. A local developer wanted to put a £25 million hotel complex on the site of the current Breakwater Bistro restaurant.

He said it would transform the area and bring much-needed jobs, but hundreds of local people queued across the car park to examine the plans. Many were furious, describing the brightly-coloured buildings in the proposal as ‘vile’ and ‘monstrous’.

Designers have since said they are going back to the drawing board to come up with something more acceptable, pointing out that the current bistro building has structural issues and needs to be replaced.

In May this year councillors voted unanimously to give the car park protected listing, agreeing that it exists mainly to ‘further the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community’. The listing means the community would get first option to buy it if the council ever decided to sell.

Now campaigners want the council to take a formal decision never to sell off any part of the car park for development.

The petition says: “There is now support from 5,000 local residents who are all agreed that the beach and car park should remain as they are.

“That can be achieved quite properly by the council simply confirming Breakwater car park is not for sale. Please preserve it for future generations and for goodness sake listen to local people.”