THE people and businesses of Newton Abbot have spoken, no they don’t want anything to do with that Queen Street scheme but will TDC listen, I wonder?

There’s more. The cattle market is being closed and will probably be sold off for development. Add to that the wonderful ‘hotel’ being built on the Sherbourne Road carpark right opposite Sherbourne House.

So let me take you back nearly 20 years... a lady you all know appeared on television on the local news saying firmly no to the sale of the cattle market, not only that place, but also the multi-storey car park and Sherbourne Road car park and the Alexandra.

TDC wanted to sell them off to a developer. That might have fallen flat on its face then but those plans were shoved in a box and pushed away in the back of a cupboard to resurface at a later date, when no one would remember the last time they tried to flog it off.

So let’s look at the top part of the Sherbourne Road car park.

The council wants to lease the land to Travelodge for them to build a dirty great monstrosity. Now you will note the word ‘lease’, a 25year lease on the land, so Travelodge build that eyesore and after 25 years what happens then?

One councillor gave me an ear bashing about the difference between overnighter and hotels. How did I know the difference? Maybe the fact I was brought up in the hotel trade, I learnt book keeping at the age of 12 and we had holidaymakers for a week or fortnight in the summer, bed, breakfast and evening meal, and H & C students in the winter. 

They taught me silver service, table laying, dealing with wine and later I went back to college as a mature student in the H & C  block, studying Reception and Housekeeping.

We have, about half a mile down the road, Premier Inn, like Travelodge an overnighter. These places do not bring visitors into the town and surrounding area to holiday and spend their money here. They don’t even have dining rooms, it is literally a bed for one night, maybe two, eating out at the local pub like Beefeater, visiting businesses, the race course, going to a concert or family affair wedding, funeral, but not a holiday.

Sherbourne House opposite the Travelodge site would make a first class hotel, bedrooms, restaurants, dining room, bar, bed and breakfast and evening meal all inclusive, all under one roof and people coming down on holiday in this area bringing much needed revenue, need I go on.

I was also told by someone when I was moaning about the council selling off our history and assets that the multi-storey car park had to be got rid of because it had concrete cancer, to which I pointed out that if that was so, then the council are bound by Health and Safety to shut it down immediately. The response was ‘Oh well that was what I heard’ .TDC wouldn’t be that daft as to put that round as a reason and excuse for selling it off, surely not.

In the Old Days when we really did have a market we would have loads of stalls, stalls of every kind, a real draw to visitors coach loads, or those stopping in the Globe and Queen’s. We could turn the old cattle market into that. 

We could encourage stall holders Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Sundays car boot but we could make a lot of use of that area, things that would bring people into the town, shopping around the stalls, then into the town, just like the old historical Market Town it once was.

I know I bleat on about it, but I can remember just how busy that town was in those halcyon days, and with thought, effort and a lot of promotion it could be again. We don’t need to sell off our assets, our past we need to make use of them, proper use.