Keith Stokes-Smith, Lord of the Borough of Newton Abbot, writes:
I viewed with dismay the outline image of proposed new buildings to be built in Wolborough Street on the old Seymour Horwell site and would agree totally with your description of them being eye-catching and striking. Now tell me the truth – someone has gone through a portfolio of designs from the past and found a 1960s design for a prison or maybe a library in Milton Keynes. No? Would I say that the design or anything that resembles it would entice people into the town? Well, maybe the facilities inside the buildings would, but externally, no way. Is the building, comprising two rectangular boxes, architecturally interesting? Does the building create positive emotional feelings? Is the building visually attractive? Does the building contribute positively to Newton Abbot? Will it stand the test of time? Am I inspired? Would Newtonians be proud of it? I would suggest a definite no to all those questions. What is needed – and I agree with Cllr Daphne Watts – is a design which complements and empathises with the new, being the Asda development, and with the old, being the tower and those properties in Bank Street and that pedestrianised part of Wolborough Street. If it is additionally decided that the building should have impact, which I can understand given it will be the first major building one would see as you arrive in town, then let's have a building which gives off positive vibes, which is not out of place with its environment and which is a little more architecturally creative. This building is meant to last for decades to come, not to find itself for consideration for a competition entitled Blot on the Landscape.