DAWLISH councillors were told by regeneration officer, Andrew Childs, Wednesday of last week, that he 'hopes to have an action plan for the town and be looking to broker a deal before his contract expires in three years,' writes Jonathan Wright at Dawlish Town Council.
He said that he had been working heavily with former Dawlish mayor, John Anthony, to set up a working group to plan regeneration work, review the Dawlish Action Plan and to build on work of last year's Appraisal Day.
'I have also been working out ideas for doing community consultation in Dawlish,' he said, 'and setting up structures for producing a strategic action plan for the town.
Councillors were informed that a vision statement about what Dawlish should be like in 20 years and an action plan to address the issues and deliver the vision was needed.
'We have already leaned a lot from the experiences of Teignmouth and the way they have gone about their regeneration work,' he said. 'The working group set up has met and agreed the processes we need to adopt to achieve a vision statement and action plan for Dawlish.'
The Heritage Lottery Fund has also been contacted to see what funding would be available for the town.
Cllr Margaret Dickson asked him how much money was likely to come to the town and over what timescale?
Mr Childs said: 'That question is impossible to answer at the moment because a new company is currently being formed in place of the Regional Development Agency. I can't say how much money we can get until then.
'Going on previous figures, we would get £50,000 initially to undertake consultations and short-term quick-win projects.
'On timescales, we hope to have the consultations done by the end of May next year. Until those are completed, it is difficult to give a date.
Cllr Humphrey Clemens informed Mr Childs that there was not enough public transport in Holcombe and what could he do about it?
'In terms of transport. there is a wing at County Hall which is there to help with community transport,' replied Mr Childs. 'I will look into it.'
Mr Childs will be attending all regional and county Market and Coastal Town Initiative meetings to represent Dawlish. The next meeting of the working group is in January to finalise ideas.