Dave Thomas: Meet with us to discuss Paignton’s big plans

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025. Hope you had a lovely break over Christmas.

I wanted to give you advance notice that our next Residents Engagement Event will be taking place on Saturday, 25 January. This is the one we had planned to have in November, but due to one of the many storms we had at the end of 2024, we needed to rearrange it.

Engaging and consulting with you is really important to us, and we enjoy being out and about on the streets hearing from you about what is impacting you and what your thoughts and feedback on our plans are. This engagement event will actually be number 15 since we started these, which was shortly after we were elected in May 2023.

For this event we will be based on Victoria Street in Paignton, just outside Iceland. There will be several councillors and officers at the event from 10 am to 4 pm. The theme will be about the number of regeneration schemes that are planned for Paignton, which there are a lot of starting to take place. I imagine you will have questions about the plans that we can hopefully answer for you.

To summarise what is happening, just before Christmas we shared images of what Station Square will look like. The designs focus on modernising the heart of the town centre, improving public spaces, and they will introduce new landscaping, which will create a vibrant and welcoming environment. A contractor has been appointed, and we hope work will start in the next few months.

Before the work starts on Station Square, and to help with a smooth transition when it does, the taxi ranks and spaces for blue badge holders will be created on Torbay Road. This will mean if you are in need of a taxi, they will be based at both ends of Torbay Road. As extra support to the Hackney trade during the Station Square improvement works, a temporary rank will be introduced on Hyde Road when the works start.

You may have also seen that we have moved into the next phase with the plans for the Victoria Centre. The Victoria multi-story car park is now closed, and the contractor, Wrings Group, has started the enabling works to start demolishing it. All the businesses operating within the Victoria Centre and surrounding areas will remain open, and you will still be able to access them. At the end of the first phase of the demolition, which is expected to be by mid-April, work will start to construct a temporary surface-level car park, with the aim to have a large number of spaces available for summer this year.

Above: Victoria multi-storey car park. Image: Torbay Council

Along with these works, the temporary car park at Crossways is open and is being well used. Meanwhile, there is work underway by us and our regeneration partnership with Milligan and Wilmott Dixon to find a revised option for this site that will deliver 90 extra care homes. We hope a planning application for this sits by the middle of this year.

The Paignton and Preston Promenade scheme will also start this year, providing high-quality coastal defences and public realm. The defences are essential to protect the future of the seafronts, residential properties in the town, businesses, and the town centre. The scheme includes enhanced public spaces with space for locals and visitors to make the most of this stunning area of Torbay. We are now in the final stages of the tender process to appoint a developer for the scheme.

All of these projects are exciting for Paignton as we start a new chapter for the town. They are community-led, and like you, we want to see the area rejuvenated, businesses being attracted back into the town, and the creation of new homes for local people.

Throughout all works happening in 2025 and beyond, it is important to remember that Paignton will remain open; please keep visiting and supporting the town centre.

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Image Credits and Reference: https://www.torbayweekly.co.uk/news/1697367/dave-thomas-meet-with-us-to-discuss-paignton-s-big-plans.html