Torquay harbourside 'transformation' gathers pace

'These are going to be exciting times'

Knocking down the derelict Debenhams department store on Torquay harbourside will be part of a ‘transformation’ of the town’s tourism hotspot.

A £4 million revamp of the piazza in front of the former store will be opened to the public at the end of this week.

Now Torbay Council is keen to get on with the job of pulling down the old store and building new homes, businesses and possibly a high-end ‘boutique’ hotel in its place.

Development partners Willmott Dixon and Milligan are waiting eagerly to get started on the job, one of a number of major capital projects in the pipeline for the bay.

“These are going to be exciting times for Torquay,” said Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston), cabinet member for economic growth.

The council’s cabinet has voted unanimously to snap up the harbourside buildings it needs by using a compulsory purchase order if agreement cannot be reached with the current owners.

The properties involved are numbers 7 to 14 The Strand, where Debenhams was, and six properties on The Terrace, behind the old department store.

Having all the properties ‘in-house’ will then allow developers to move quickly to make a start on the new development.

Once the new piazza opens after months of work which was delayed by the discovery of uncharted pipes and cables under the ground, it will be a wide pedestrian boulevard, with buses banished and traffic squeezed into a single carriageway rather than the previous double.

Cllr Lewis told cabinet colleagues: “We hope we will never have to use the compulsory purchase order. We hope we can get the establishments to sign up.

“But we need this last resort because we can’t afford to delay and dither. We need to get on with it.

“On the back of what we have done with the Strand, it will transform that part of Torquay.”