Teignmouth boatyard preview
It's likely to be recommended for refusal
Major plans to regenerate Teignmouth’s Riverside Boatyard are being recommended for refusal.
The district council’s planning committee will meet next week to consider the mixed-use application for the site on Bishopsteignton Road. It features nine homes, industrial units, offices, beach huts and boat storage.
The site, which previously housed the town’s gas works and currently combines small business units with boat storage, is now “unsightly and contributes very little to the aesthetic or communal value of the town,” according to an application on behalf of Teignmouth Maritime Properties Ltd.
Billed as the ‘Riverside Regeneration Project,’ their plan aims to “maximise the potential of the scheme to create a positive impact on the town in a variety of ways.”
It would comprehensively redevelop the site, demolishing the existing industrial boatyard buildings and putting up new five industrial units, offices, nine open market homes and 16 holiday units ‘intended to resemble beach huts.’
But council planning officers are not satisfied, writing: “Officers do not consider that there is any justification for such a large scale of development,” and refer to the “four-storey heights of the residential and commercial blocks.”
They say the “town-house style design,” combined with “the introduction of large expanses of glazing, particularly to the commercial block, all form a design which is directly at odds with the need for low-impact, unobtrusive development in the ‘undeveloped coast’ and Teign Estuary area.”
Recommending refusal, officers conclude that while they “welcome the applicant’s intention to secure the viability of the boatyard for the long term, the scheme as put forward has been shown to be undeliverable.
“It is unclear that the limited public benefits in terms of the enhanced boatyard and employment generation through the office floorspace could be realised.”
The report goes on to say: “Development of this site will permanently detract from what is a largely undeveloped and attractive landscape – one which contributes to the strong tourist economy in Teignmouth and Shaldon and which is visible to all travelling south west along the mainline railway.”
A number of both positive and negative comments about the scheme have been received by the district council.
Some are in favour of redeveloping the ‘neglected’ site which has become an eyesore, while others are concerned about the size of the plans along with a lack of affordable housing being provided.
Members of the planning committee will consider the application on Tuesday 25 October.