The Concise Column

Concise Wealth Management

10 months ago

I’m after a big favour. Torbay Council planning dept are being a pain in the arse. As many of you know we bought an old dilapidated GP surgery. We have Modernised it and tried hard to keep the existing features of the property. I brought it with a view point of securing a business home for the next twenty years plus.

I Replaced the condemned windows and was never advised by anyone that this would cause an issue. I employ ten local staff, none of which are minimum wage and in fact are way above this creating jobs and tax in various ways. Now the Council have charged us more money and could enforce me to change all the windows back to white, because we changed the window colour of the windows to a more modern grey colour, the same colour as many of the buildings located over the road, including a church and Sainsbury’s. We didn’t change the material from pvc.

It is not a listed building or in a conservation area and there were no restrictions on the deeds or from Torbay planning and my project manager does not understand either. Torbay were painfully slow initially through the planning permission and the sale nearly fell through due to it and almost left my business and staff without a home to work from! They have already received significant fees for change of use and planning and charge a fortune in business rates. The grey windows are already in place and in my opinion look great and has modernised a little bit of our local home town. I feel considerably stressed and upset with Torbay council. Small businesses receive no help or encouragement and much of the empty buildings in town will remain empty and I can see why!! Please could you take a few minutes to comment on the planning application on Torbay Council Planning Website. To search for the plans please enter the post code TQ3 2SG. Takes about 5 min of your time. I will happily buy anyone a beer or wine the next time I see you for your support xxx ... See MoreSee Less