Calls for the mayor's resignation reverberated around the Princess Theatre during a heated meeting on the Mayoral Vision. Mayor Nick Bye, deputy Kevin Carroll and Bernie Foulkes from LDA, the design consultancy firm employed to come up with the Mayor's Vision, were barracked as they made their presentations to disgruntled residents (link below.)
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141507&command=displayContent&sourceNode=257390&home=yes&more_nodeId1=257393&contentPK=20472382Protesters calling for Torbay to be saved signed up to a petition which now has 1,100 signatures, according to petition organiser Mark Hellyer.
The mayor explained the vision laid out the economic regeneration of Torbay that would see changes in Brixham, Paignton and Torquay, and could see Torbay start to think of it self as a city.
But the mayor assured the audience 'nothing is set in stone' as the 19 possible developments that still have to go through the planning process were discussed.
Pensioner Dave Kimberley, from Warbro Road, asked the mayor if he would consider resigning and Kevin McGrath, from Rock Road, asked if the mayor believed he would be where is now if he had included the selling off of green spaces in his electoral campaign.
Plans for a university and blocks of seafront flats received a mixed reaction, and concerns were also raised over where new homes would go in the Bay and who would be able to afford them.
Mr Bye highlighted high rates of teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, high numbers of people over 80, the loss of 5,000 jobs at Nortel, high numbers of Torbay's youngsters leaving because of a lack of opportunity and the highest rates of unemployment in the South West as the background to the Mayor's Vision.
Concerns outside the Mayoral Vision were also raised including the development of the Hollicombe Gasworks site and the future of Beacon Cove during the three-hour meeting.
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