'Think again' call over historic Newton Abbot mill

'Demolition would permanently erase this tangible link with history'

Conservation campaigners are urging a Devon council to think again before taking the demolition ball to a building they describe as a celebration of local heritage.

Teignbridge Council has voted to knock down the old mill building in Newton Abbot’s  Bradley Lane to make way for up to 100 badly-needed new homes despite some councillors saying the decision amounts to ‘cultural vandalism’.

Now a conservation group has weighed in, urging the council to find another solution.

One of the buildings on the site is Vicarys Mill, which is known locally as the Launa Building.

It was home to a paper mill in the 1700s, but has been rebuilt a number of times since. It is now empty, and has been badly vandalised. The council says it is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year just to maintain it.

The council’s decision earlier this year to axe a planned town centre cinema scheme leaves £2.4 million of the government’s Future High Streets money earmarked for Newton Abbot unspent. Officers say the council should spend it on Bradley Lane instead.

Some councillors called for a delay while all options were considered, and Cllr Richard Daws (SD Alliance, Ambrook) said: “I can’t conceive that Future High Streets will give you this money to simply demolish history.”

Others said it was time to remove the ‘eyesore’ building and start again.

The latest intervention comes from the Historic Buildings and Places organisation, formerly known as the Ancient Monuments Society.

It says it has ‘deep concern’ over the demolition of ‘architecturally characterful’ buildings on a site where milling dates back to the thirteenth century.

“Demolition would permanently erase this tangible link with Newton Abbot’s history,” it says in a statement.

Director Liz Power added: “Councils across England have used their Future High Street Funds on conservation-led regeneration projects that celebrate their town’s local cultural heritage.

“Teignbridge should use its public funds to develop a masterplan for the regeneration of this publicly-owned site, not to create a blank canvas for the benefit of a private developer.”