Get set to paddleboard from Kingsbridge car park

Water available nearby

A town in South Devon is set to get a temporary paddleboarding school.

Waterborn, a paddleboarding club based in Kingsbridge, will set up shipping containers to provide changing and teaching space in a car park at Squares Quay.

But nine out of around 200 car parking spaces will be lost to the plan.

Waterborn predicts that around 60 people a day will be using the facility in the summer season.

The building will use two timber clad containers, with a space between for briefing meetings before sessions.

To help the environment, the club conducts paddle and pick sessions, whereby paddleboarders collect litter left in the water.

The facilities, which include exterior racking for equipment, will be in place for two years.

The scheme was unanimously approved by South Hams’ development management committee on Wednesday [15 March].

Cllr Denis O’Callaghan (Liberal Democrat, Kingsbridge) said that it is great for young people.

“It looks great,” she added. “It’s colourful, it brings the whole place to life. It’s exactly what we need down on the quay, exactly the sort of thing that helps the environment. It attracts visitors, it attracts footfall to the town. It will other businesses in the town. [It is] a wholly positive thing I think.”

Green party member Cllr Jacqi Hodgson (Dartington and Staverton) agreed. “I personally really welcome this,” she said. “I think it’s really good to see this coming in, and it’s the really important type of activities that we need to revitalise a lot of our miserable car parks!”