Torbay Council says ‘no plans’ to build in Oldway Mansion grounds

The man behind a Torbay Council planning document which appears to earmark the grounds of Oldway Mansion for house-building today insisted: “We won’t be building there.”

Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston), who is the cabinet member for place development and economic growth said that while the draft local plan document says 46 homes could be built in the grounds of the mansion, it was merely listing places where planning permission had already been given.
In September 2012 Torbay Council passed plans for 46 three and four-bed town houses along with 55 sheltered flats in a four to six-storey building. The areas involved were the indoor bowling club and the Fernham nursing home.
Work went ahead on the nursing home, where new assisted living apartments were built, but the homes on the bowling club site were not built by developers Akkeron at the time.
However, Cllr Lewis explained that planning permission for the homes was still ‘live’. Because the nursing home project was done, work on the overall project was deemed to have made a ‘material start’, meaning permission for the homes still exists.
However, he said there were no current plans to complete the work by building the homes.
“Our policy in the local plan was to include all applications that are live, and Oldway falls into that category,” he added. “This administration has no plans to build on the Oldway estate. We own it, and we have no desire to build on it.
“In any case, planning has changed since 2012 and it would probably not get permission from Historic England. We haven’t got a developer in place, and we aren’t looking for one.
“This is a historic thing from a previous administration which allowed a developer to put in planning permission.
“We have no plans to build 46 houses on the Oldway estate.”