New plans for historic Torquay garden

Controversial plans for development in a historic nineteenth century walled garden in Torquay will be debated again next week.

Singleton Gardens has been at the centre of planning wrangles for years. Local firm OJ Developments had a proposal for homes there turned down by Torbay councillors last year.
The company has returned with a fresh application which doesn’t include any new buildings.
However, objectors fear the latest proposal is a ‘Trojan horse’ ahead of more complex plans.
English Heritage has described Singleton Gardens as ‘an unusual survivor’ and Eden Project founder Sir Tim Smit said the previous proposal left him ‘dumbfounded’.
The latest proposal, to be seen by the Torbay Council planning committee next week, is for extensions and alterations to the existing home, including demolishing existing extensions, new two-storey and single-storey extensions, roof alterations and replacement windows.
An existing greenhouse would be knocked down.
Developers say the work is needed because the structures they plan to demolish are modern twentieth century ‘interventions’, which create a ‘ramshackle appearance’ in the present garden.
But one objector wrote: “I’m very disappointed. This looks to be nothing more than a Trojan Horse for a more extensive redevelopment of the site.
“The plans are not in keeping with the area and will be to its detriment. This is a special and delicate environment.”
Last August, Torbay councillors turned down an application for seven apartments and two houses on the site off Meadfoot Sea Road.
Of the current application, the council’s historic environment officer says it will have a positive impact by removing ‘poor quality or unsightly’ twentieth century extensions.
But the Torquay Neighbourhood Plan Forum says: “There is concern that the developer will seek to use this new application as a vehicle to reinstate the previously refused application.
“The forum is adamant that this application shall not be seen as the ‘starter phase’ for the other development.”
Councillors are being advised to approve the plans, subject to a number of conditions.