comments on the Exmouth Masterplan!

Response to the Lda ExmouthTown cent re and Seafront Master plan

I have no option but to accept that many of the Aims are in principal acceptable but they are far too woolly to be fully acceptable; no one would not agree that an aim to protect the natural setting we have is a very important matter but when it is then progressed to improve the Imperial recreation grounds and the Estuary side by inserting things like offices and residential developments this is hardly protecting the natural setting rather it protects the desire of the District Councilors to strip out everything that we have in Exmouth and build build build. That satisfies their main supporters who give large sums to their election funds to get preferential treatment

Most of the people who come here to stay do so because they like the Town as is with its natural unspoiled setting We who live here do likewise we are not forced to live in Exmouth but we choose e to do so. How many times can we see incomers who have looked about the area and decided to settle in Exmouth then become very strong campaigners for changing the place?

Unlike many who live here I am not against another supermarket indeed I was sorry that ASA withdrew even if they were not my first choice (that would have been Morrison's) We desparatly need another option to the Tesco town that we have become but the need is for a store on the northern edge of Town that would be closer to the main residential areas of Exmouth.

In may places the consultants report says that there is an opportunity to provide an Iconic building, but they do not say what that building would be for. This is simply Pig in a poke situation if the public just accept the report without question.

The perception that Exmouth is a dying town is pushed very hard but one has only to recall the Swat analasis that was done by suiccessive Town Managers to see that we are considered to be the opposite and are a vibrant forward looking town tha has many atributes which are worth preseving but again we see a report that is obviously driven by a remote and at time vindictive District Council hell bent on destroying what we now have in the mistaken idea that we need to change to exist.

As a tourist destination it is true that we are not as bright and brassy as places like Blackpool, Weston Super Mare, Brighton or even Tor bay but the town is still one of the most liked and returned to holiday destinations in England even without the much touted attractions which the few say we should have, most of these are either incomers or have some vested interests.

A water splash replacing the Children's play park and boating lake will take the Jungle fun and golf sites with it leaving the proposed car park on the play park site, Will these consultants not realize that we have in that area three very well used and liked bulkinesses that will have to go loosing about 50 real local jobs in the passing? And wherever a water park has been built in the last 20 years in the West Country it has been done with private funding all are now closed and bankrupt, see Goodrington, Weston Super Mare and even the old outdoor pool site where Kieth Wakefield had a rent free Leese for five years but eventually folded because of lack of custom with extreme maintenance cost due to the salty atmosphere..

I am as I previously said not against proper and needed improvements to make Exmouth better but these must be to the benefit of the residents and not just for the sake of change or to satisfy the implied needs of a District Council which has little empathy with what we in Exmouth want in OUR TOWN>

An extremely important part of the holiday industry is now centered around pensioners and those with lower disposable income often with young children. These are not necessarily the ones who want to have interpretation centre, bowling alleys, more pubs and a new library but simply want a site on which to say for their holidays. A series of camping/touring caravan sites would bring in thousands of extra visitors each wee each family would then spend the local shops and use the existing attractions in the area. As this expanded then we would see just where the expansion was needed and private money would soon come to fill the gaps without having to have the maserplan which it is the wish of the District Council and very few others.

The proposed town square at the end of Marine way replacing the KFC roundabout will be a completed disaster. The idea that this would be pedestrial priority zone with a nartowed cariageway is simply jus unworkable. The idea that there is need for a grand entrance to the town will be negated by the traffic ques which are already here without narrowing the road at all. Traffic on the first saturday of the school holidays is backed up as far as the Shel, garage in Exeter Road, Hulham road is also backed up because cars cannot get oiut onto the main road. How long before Exmouth gets the reputation that it is one single traffic jam and visitors wont come to tnetown if these proposals are ever implemented. If the intention is to priovide an iconic entrance to exmouth from this route then the only way to do this is by diverting marine way and the railway to the Esturay side and linking up with the Royal Avenue as the first Transport and pedestrianisation report published by ECA described.

Summing up I want Exmouth to be left alone in most places although a deveplment in the London Inn are would be acceptable if they are of small shops in courtyards replaciong some

How can we hope to get anywhere when the District Council appoints an Exmouth Councilor who didn't even want to live here (but only came because he couldn't get anywhere in Sid mouth, who doesn't shop in Exmouth preferring Sid mouth) as our main spokesman and “Champion”

Exmouth is being led to the dogs who are ready and waiting to rip the meat from the town's bones with the complete backing of that District Council who are backing this masterplan to the hilt.