Torbay Council

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Paignton Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme (HERS)

During the 1990's Old Paignton fell into a marked decline. A combination of new out of town shopping developments, traffic management issues, high levels of crime, low housing values and high building repair costs all had a drastic impact. Within Winner Street's main retail area one third of the shops were vacant in 1998. Similar problems were apparent within the residential sector. Of the 120 residential buildings within Winner Street and Church Street, 32 were in a moderate state of repair. Urgent intervention by the council and local people was needed.
In 1998 a community group consisting of a range of local business representatives, residents, the police, Torbay Council, churches and other interested parties came together to look at the problems. The group concluded that the problems experienced in the area could not be attributed to any single issue. The causes were diverse and any strategy to deal with them needed to remedy all the underlying problems to produce a truly holistic solution. Fortunately English Heritage had just launched a new grant funding stream called the Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme (HERS). This made funding available for the repair of historic buildings, but also required applicants to take steps to identify and address the underlying causes of decline. A bid for funding was made with this statement as its central aim:
                   ‘To promote conservation-led economic regeneration of the area by preserving and
                    enhancing its unique heritage’.
Central to this aim are four important strategies:
  1. To re-establish the area as a vibrant neighbourhood shopping area serving the local community.
  2. To develop speciality shopping to attract visitors from all around South Devon, with emphasis being given to the utilisation of shops that are currently vacant.
  3. To create attractive and sustainable residential opportunities to complement the area’s commercial regeneration.
  4. To preserve and enhance the special architectural and historic qualities of this important conservation area and the historic buildings within it.
To meet these aims a range of closely related goals and projects were developed. The main ones were as follows:
From the outset it was recognised that it would be necessary to address all of these issues if an economically sustainable long term future was to be found for Old Paignton. In recognition of this approach, English Heritage awarded a total of £250,000 towards the scheme. Torbay Council itself committed £1 million from various sources. The scheme operated for 4 years and is recognised as being one of the most successful of its type in the country. As a direct result of the initial grant investment, more than £5 million of private sector investment has been made in the area.

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