Public Consultation 2011

The people of Exmouth aren't disinterested. Encourage the majority to participate though and you'll get the same answer. "Waste of time. Whatever we say, they'll still do what they want". 

Ticking many boxes on the questionnaire, especially the priority projects, and you are basically giving the council a mandate for asset disposal. They are being surprisingly honest, if you read the full details, about the price to be paid for many of these. We can only afford to smarten up the estuary if we have a supermarket; the Elizabeth Hall site plans 'may' need to be financed by shoehorning housing onto the site. The 'Exmouth Splash' project means losing the current seafront facilities where our children play, with the play park becoming a car park for the bowling alley. Whatever happened to the integral car park initially given permission? Is there a cock up there which they are trying to keep hidden?

Why not telling the bowling alley crowd to use the old homemaker store at Liverton or a site on the next stage? They have had more than long enough to sort out their mess, and they and the council have not been honest with the public. 
Have a decent size soft play unit up there (Liverton) as well. Then put Exmouth Splash on the site of the old outdoor pool, so it can enhance our existing seafront facilities rather than replace them.

By whose definition are the current seafront amenities underachieving? They are crucial in providing variety on the seafront for young families, holiday makers and ourselves. My definition of underachieving areas are those where people serve food and drink in grotty establishments which aren't kept clean, but probably still make a profit thanks to the location. There are two establishments where I spent much time in the 80's, but wouldn't eat in now.

The 'blue ribbon' and waterfront gems are a great idea, if governed by affordability and sustainability. Be wary of iconic buildings and the egos and pockets of developers and architects. Interesting that the consultants mention Littlehampton and show a picture of the 'iconic' East Beach Cafe. The cafe is amusing, but it is a box, serving overpriced stale food (perhaps better inside if lucky enough to get or book one of the few tables), but the Long Bench is brilliant. Could I suggest convening a volunteer arts committee to look at this aspect? Fresh minds and no existing relationships. That's not to imply corruption, just familiarity undermining imaginative potential.

The report slates the Harbour View Cafe building, but for me this, with the Coast Watch tower, is part of our heritage, and should be protected. Although it should be refreshed, adequately staffed, and possibly taken up market. It can accommodate half a dozen or more East Beach Cafes, even if punters currently have to wait a while.

I strongly believe the Orcombe Point end should remain open to traffic and the parking retained. Taking fish and chips down there whatever the weather, in or out of season, occasionally running into the sea clothed or not, are simple pleasures where there would be no benefit in them being lost.

The major projects seem so dependent on retail expansion or inappropriate development. People buy so much on line these days. Since the existing supermarkets are rarely overcrowded, what is the point of having another? Unique businesses, building on the town's qualities and natural assets, are the answer.

The last four paragraphs of King Ludd's comments sum it all up.  If I were to ' celebrate' anything (in the banal jargon of the planners) it would be the demise of those still trying to foist already rejected and discredited development upon the people of Exmouth.

Not very slick today! I can't get any of the links to download. That will teach me to procrastinate. Hopefully a monitor will have a look and there's still time.

Regarding the alleged apathy of the residents, I talk to lots of people and encourage them to participate. The answer is almost always the same. 'It's a waste of time. Whatever we say they'll still do whatever they want.'

Regarding the future of the Fun Park, I heard a rumour that the play park is to become a car park for the bowling alley. At the presentation in the Magnolia Centre yesterday it was clearly designated as a car park on the large board map but with no reference in the accompanying text. The leaflet map accompanying the questionnaire doesn't even show the 'P'. 

The rumour also included apartments being built on the fun park go cart track.

I understood that the original planning permission for the bowling alley included a multi storey car park. Is that correct. I believe also that part of the reason for the delays with that project was said to be relating to vehicle access. Did the architects and planners forget to ensure that the plans had access? And of course the main reason for the delay is still shrouded in 'commercial confidentiality', which translates as a reluctance to tell the truth. If the approved plans did not in fact include adequate car parking, why was that?

Why should the family business which has been enjoyed by locals and visitors for years be sacrificed to make good someone else's cock up, when those responsible won't even own up. Another example of the lack of transparency which puts ordinary people off participating.

Also the questionnaires are so simplistic that it is easily possible to support a project, eg the Elizabeth Hall, when the earlier detail published in the Journal included apartments yet these are not mentioned on the leaflet.

Monitors. Please sort out the downloads issue and please explain why the maps don't match.

The website's very slick - God only knows what it cost, all of this.  I hate to think.  But as I understand it only 200 people have returned their questionnaires. It's all very well shaking your head and rending your clothes and bemoaning the fact that the people of Exmouth seem disinterested in the town's future.  Councillor Andrew Moulding says “The worst possible scenario is that people do not make their views known and then dislike the things that happen later on – when it’s too late for them to change it.”  Leaving aside the casual use of the aberrant word 'scenario' what is most annoying about this statement is that it refuses to accept that the onus for getting people to participate in this questionnaire and make their opinions known lies with the people proposing the ideas, not the people of the town.  Indeed if the regeneration committee are proposing to make decisions about the future of this town based on the returned questionnaires of 200 people it would be an outrage and a disgrace, since plainly no honest man could count 0.5% of the population as a mandate for decisions.

There's really no point in holding exhibitions and producing photoshopped pictures of seaside utopias surrounded by baffling regeneration jargon if the people of the town are disinterested.  You're paid to be interested.  The people of this town aren't.  

This level of exhausted ennui needs to be seen within the context of various unlocking Exmouth plans and consultations stretching back years, in which the wishes of the people of Exmouth have been consistently ignored.  Their ideas for the town have been steamrollered over.  The council have kept on asking the same questions, reframing the language, apparently attempting to get the answer they want.  That's not democracy: that's manufacturing consent.

Now here we are with a new all-singing, all dancing, jargonised, desolatingly expensive set of proposals, basically saying all the same things that the other proposals have said, overlaid with a lot of green sheened eco-melch.  Once again we're looking down the barrel of a giant supermarket with everything that entails.

What we've got here is an elected group of representatives who refuse to represent the people who elected them.  The Exmouth Citizens Forum, a group of unpaid people in the town, got over 10,000 signatures for their campaign.  That's a mandate.  This.....this is a travesty.

If the council think they can proceed with their plans using a few hundred people as their authority, they've got another thing coming.

I would like to endorse the submission to The Masterplan by the Exmouth Residents Association.dated 21 August 2011.  In particular the very sensitive improvements to the estuaryside as described in the document with the avoidance of placing a busy two way road right in front of the station and severing this entry to the town. There is NO possibility of a supermarket being included without serious damage to the existing fragile health of retail in the town.   I will not repeat all the arguments here.  I am a resident of Lympstone and not a member of the ERA.  Many thanks

Some very good ideas, however I feel there needs to be more emphasis on what we already have here, in particular focusing on the beach and is surronding compliments.The town is very contradicting in what it seems to what it would like to become. The development of the town centre adds a family orientated feel to it, however the recent surge in development over the last decade of retirement homes, is effectivley killing the town, it brings no youth nor energy thus we need to focus on family oreitnated/ youthfull policies. Particular focusing on the beach, with is no doubt the vocal point of the town should be a priority, attracting much of the tourism to the area. It is sad to know that that the Exmouth Fun park could be at risk to changing to a water based park. At present the Exmouth Fun park compliments the beach, adding variety and uniqueness to what is on offer for tourism. Turing it into a Sole water park, would make it in direct compeition with the beach, where as with present and possible slight alterations to the Fun Park, through to the crazy golf adds much more diversity. Why waste more money, when instead we can finish developing what we already have; in particular the present ongoing building site that has remaind a building site for over 18 months untill recently. In relation to the maer car park, it could be enhanced as a car park, building residential homes most ,( probably suggested as retirement homes) would back up the point made earlier that its a contradiction, in trying to allow exmouth to grow and fulfil its potential, but instead making a quick buck for short term instead of planning for the furture