Torbay sea-front toilets to be sold

Warnings developers would leave them empty

Three former toilet blocks on prime seafront sites in Torbay will be sold, despite warnings that would-be developers could pick them up cheaply and leave them empty for years.

But Torbay Council’s deputy leader Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) urged members of the overview and scrutiny board to forget politics and work together to deliver projects at the derelict loos.

Now the blocks at Preston and Corbyn Head as well as the Old Toll House on Torquay seafront will be offered for private developers to bid for 999-year leases. The council will also set planning requirements so it can regulate the shape and size of any new developments before the leases are sold.

All three former lavatories were lined up for development under the Liberal Democrat/Independent coalition which ran the council before the May elections. The council planned to do the building at all three, and then let them out to ‘end users’, but none of the deals was completed.

Now the new Tory administration believes selling the buildings and letting the private sector take on the work is the way to go.

The new council had already agreed to go ahead, but the decision was ‘called in’ by the coalition – now in opposition – for an extra debate.

At that meeting this week, Cllr Swithin Long (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe) asked: “Why does this administration think selling off these assets is the magic bullet?

“If their idea of delivery is simply selling an asset so it can be land-banked, then that is a low bar we are setting ourselves.

“This is very much just putting a finger in the air and saying ‘if we sell it, something will happen’. I don’t have any idea what that ‘something’ is.”

And Cllr Darren Cowell (Independent, Shiphay) added: “If we are selling off council assets, we need to be absolutely certain we get the best outcome for Torbay taxpayers.”

Cllr Lewis said building cafes and bars was better left to ‘experts’ rather than the council.

“We want to get cracking with it, and get the private sector to invest in the bay,” he said. “It’s not our job as a council to build properties for the private sector. Instead of playing politics let’s be positive and work together.

“If there are people out there interested in any of those sites we’d be very happy to talk to them. It’s not all about money, it’s about doing the best for the people of Torbay.

“It’s about using prime sites for the benefit of residents, tourists and businesses. They don’t want to see these sites run down, they want to see something being done.

“Otherwise, in four years time, they are going to be sitting there derelict again, and we can’t afford for that to happen.

“Why would anyone be against this? It’s a win-win situation.”

Members of the overview and scrutiny board voted to take no further action on the call-in, meaning the sell-off can now go ahead.