REGIME CHANGE

A few observations on the four months since Nick Bye packed his bags and left the Town Hall:
It seems that Gordon Oliver, the new mayor, understands that building more luxury holiday apartments and 'niche retail outlets' (awful phrase!) on prime publicly owned beauty spots is not going to regenerate the fortunes of the Bay, so thank God for that. There have been some terrible crimes against architecture perpetrated around the Bay over the years and I'm afraid what's gone has been lost for good, but I firmly believe that we should try and preserve as much as possible of our Victorian heritage. As our kids have now gone to university the idea of moving somewhere else briefly crossed our minds and Mrs H and myself made a few trips up the coast to check out other locations. We quickly realized that nowhere comes close to the natural beauty of Torbay, but that the most attractive places are those which have stood up to the developers' wrecking ball: Sidmouth emphasizes its Regency heritage and has a proper pedestrianised area; Seaton, on the other hand, is a dreadful collection of square boxes and flat roofs that would probably come second if it were in competition with Guantanamo Bay as a holiday destination.

It's also been interesting to note how the Herald Express has not been slow in attacking the new mayor and his policies. The Herald Express in general, and deputy editor Jim Parker in particular, were great supporters of Nick Bye's 'sell and build' policy, even though as a road to recovery it was a cul-de-sac which very few locals were in favour of. They clearly lament his passing, to the point that they've still given him a column in which to peddle the myths about the success of his administration. Can you imagine anything more tedious? I don't buy it or read it in the chip shop. Personally I was never keen on the 'Daily Mail' stance of the Herald Express, but it did at least provide a forum for daily debate, however biased. However, with the weekly publication and the revamped website I feel this has been lost, so from now on I will content myself with the odd rant here.

Another person who was going to solve all Torbay's ills but who seems to have faded into the background is the twice-unsuccessful Tory candidate Marcus Wood. It seems that without the prospect of a 65K job plus benefits his enthusiasm for the place and doing good has somewhat evaporated. In fact the domain where his blog was at www.marcus4torbay.org seems to have been sub-let to a purveyor of dodgy watches. No great loss to politics, but a strange state of affairs nevertheless. I had to track him down via his profile on LinkedIn, where he states he attended Thames Valley University from 1977-79, even though back in 1977 it was plain old Thames Valley College of HE. It was merged with several other institutions in 1990 to become part of the Polytechnic of West London, and that finally became a university in 1992, 13 years after Marcus had left. So, Tories bending the truth, eh? Whatever next? I suppose it will be millionaires like George Osborne talking about the recession and telling us 'we're all in it together'.

Even though we have had regime change for the better, we still need to be on our toes because there will be further conservation battles ahead - Oldway Mansion springs to mind - and other policies to drive tourists away, such as more unwanted parking meters. I have that feeling you get at the end of a horror movie, where the central character survives but the axe-wielding maniac gets away, and you just know he will reappear in a sequel. So beware folks, Chris Lewis may be lying low at the moment, but he is still out there ...