29 Oct We asked, you responded – how you would spend £20million to improve Torquay

Wow! We asked for ideas about what you would like to improve in Torquay, and they flooded in.

We asked you to think in and out of the box, and boy, did you deliver – more than 60 projects designed to improve lives in the town as part of the ten-year Government-funded Plan for Neighbourhoods investment – now renamed Pride in Place – Torquay.

You were asked to focus on three key areas with the following guidance:

• Thriving places – People take immense pride in their local areas, but too many of our high streets and estates have become neglected and left behind. Town centres and neighbourhoods must evolve and regenerate better to reflect the needs and habits of their community, and residents should have a greater say in how they’re designed.​
• Stronger communities – Resilience in some of the most disadvantaged communities has been eroded over time…we want to empower boards to tackle the root causes, rebuild relationships, and restore a collective sense of belonging to their community, bringing people together so they can feel proud of their area and safe in their neighbourhood.​
• Taking back control – Talent is spread equally, but opportunity is not. We want to ensure that children have the best start in life and that adults can live the life they want to. We will empower people to enter the workforce, workers to advance, and businesses to expand. This will, in turn, help to kickstart local economic growth. Empowered people will also have more of a say in how their local area is shaped, a central component of this programme and this government’s vision for communities.​

Twenty million pounds sounds like a lot of money and indeed it is, but not when spread across the whole of Torquay and across ten years; therefore, the Torquay Place Leadership Board are faced with some tough decisions.

First off, after a round of public consultation, the Board decided to focus their efforts on the following four themes for the first four years of investment of the Plan for Neighbourhoods funding:

• Physically improving our town centre
• Reducing crime, improving safety
• Physically improving our neighbourhoods, including affordable housing
• Work and skills

The top 3 priorities accounted for 51% of the public vote, and Work and Skills were added to meet the requirements of the fund.

It was then down to the hard work of whittling down the suggested projects, and over five weeks, Torbay Communities ran three workshops to dig deeper into the themes, to look at the public’s concerns and their proposed solutions.

Fifty-four people were involved from a wide range of stakeholders – the community, voluntary sector, business community and statutory sector. Invitations were extended to all of the people who had submitted proposals for the Plan for Neighbourhoods funding, and many of them attended. Some one-to-one meetings also took place with stakeholders who were unable to attend the workshops.

Jim Parker, the chair of the Board, said: “Every one of the project proposals we have received has merit, and it is a testament to our community that this number of ideas, and this level of innovation, has come forward in such a short space of time. It is not, however, possible to fund all of these projects from this pot of money.”

Collectively, the Board and those taking part in the workshops looked at additional intelligence, existing strategies, what is already on the ground, and how long it is funded for. They also considered what is in the pipeline already, the powers available and also what has worked well elsewhere.

These are potentially inspiring times for Torquay, with an expected list of 30 projects being taken forward over the next four years.

A total of 63 projects were submitted, and the board was to debate and agree on the shortlist when it met this week. It was also tasked with creating a 10-year strategy for spending the money, with the emphasis on schemes to make life better, healthier and happier for residents.

Torquay is the only town in the south west to qualify for the first round of this money, due largely to its deprivation, crime rates, economic inactivity and low-income jobs among other factors.

Watch this space for further updates and more about the projects that have made the final selection. Exciting times.