Paignton Crossways homes scrapped

New developers and ideas needed

Supported housing planned for the site of the former Crossways shopping centre in Paignton will never see the light of day.

Instead a new developer will be sought to come up with fresh ideas for the town centre location, which is likely to include affordable housing and possibly flats for key workers.

The derelict shopping centre had been earmarked for extra care and sheltered housing accommodation under the former Liberal Democrat/Independent coalition running Torbay Council. The council had planned to build the new development and then put it in the hands of someone else.

But the new Conservative administration – in place since the elections in May – has no plans to undertake construction itself and will instead seek a developer.

Deputy council leader Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) said: “The council is here to provide services, not to build houses and factories.

“We’re here to help other people do that.”

Torbay Council made a compulsory purchase of the crumbling sixties’ shopping centre in 2021, and planning permission has been given for 90 housing units as well as commercial space on the ground floor.

Bulldozers moved in earlier this year and the centre has been largely razed to the ground.

TorVista Homes, a company the council owns, had been expected to become the owner of the completed properties, which would have been affordable housing for local people.

But Cllr Lewis said: “The project that went through the planning committee cannot be delivered.

The finances to build it simply don’t stack up.”

He said it would cost the council £10 million to proceed with the approved scheme; money it does not have.

“We can’t go ahead with a shortfall like that,” he added. “We are talking to developers about coming up with a new scheme, but it’s early days.

“It takes time to get an investor, an end user and the support of the council.”

Social media commentators have been speculating that Crossways could end up bulldozed but left as an empty site for years to come.

But Cllr Lewis said he was hopeful that would not happen.

“We will do everything possible to deliver something on that site,” he said. “It’s a good site.

“The previous plans did not stack up, but there will be plans that do stack up.

“People are all talking doom and gloom, but we have only just taken on the job.

“Judge us after four years, not four months.”