Exmouth seafront future decision delayed

Decisions over the future of Exmouth seafront will be delayed further after scrutiny councillors disagreed with the selection panel for deciding the site's future.

East Devon District Council's cabinet in February had narrowly agreed to launch a formal marketing exercise to identify developer/operator partners for the Queen's Drive site over plans to redevelop Exmouth seafront with a high quality waterfront restaurant, an 80 bedroom hotel, and an area for play and leisure uses.

But the council's scrutiny committee last Thursday unanimously agreed that the panel the purpose of agreeing the selection criteria for the commercial development was not properly balanced, and expressed their anger at how they felt Exmouth residents were not being listened to.

The cabinet had agreed the leader of the council, the Portfolio Holders for Asset Management, Finance and Economy and the Service Lead (Place, Assets and Commercialisation) and Project Manager – Place & Prosperity, should be on the selection panel, as well as one Exmouth councillor.

But the scrutiny committee stated that it should consist of one councillor from each of the five Exmouth wards, and that officers should not have voting right, and they sent their recommendation to full council.

The next full council meeting will not take place until Wednesday, April 22, with the council then making a recommendation back to the Cabinet at their meeting on Wednesday, May 6.

The decision delays any attempt to begin the marketing exercise as the panel to agree the criteria will now not be set up until at least mid-May.

Initially it had been hoped that bids would be received and reviewed by May, with a report on a recommendation on preferred developer/operator in July 2020, but that timescale will now be delayed by at least three months as a result of the scrutiny decision.

Leader of the council, councillor Ben Ingham, had previously said he wanted any eventual proposal to be in place by the end of 2021, while the attractions for the Queen's Drive space – the replacement for the former Fun Park – only have permission to stay on the site until March 2022, with no further extension allowed under planning law unless they were made permanent.

Councillor Paul Arnott, leader of the East Devon Alliance, had called the decision in, arguing that the panel the purpose of agreeing the selection criteria for the commercial development was not properly balanced, and said: "The number of elected members taking part in the Selection Panel is too few and has insufficient Exmouth democratic representatives."

Councillor Cathy Gardner added: "There is a lot of concern in Exmouth and the aspects of the regeneration and about too few Exmouth members being represented."

She proposed that in addition to the leader of the council, the Portfolio Holders for Asset Management, Finance and Economy, there should be one Exmouth member per ward, agreed by political balance and chosen by the Queen's Drive Delivery Group, and that if no suitable external bidder is found, the phase 3 concept gets referred back to cabinet for further consideration.

She said: "This makes it a local decision and if there is no commercial interest in the site, it must go back to cabinet to review the plan."