Public meeting to be held after council scraps seafront enhancement scheme

Seaton Town Council will hold a virtual public meeting to allow residents to ask questions on its recent decision to scrap the seafront enhancement scheme.

Planning permission for the enhancement scheme was granted in 2017 and it would have included pedestrianisation of sections of the seafront, demolition of the existing public toilets and moridunum and construction of a new building, alterations to the highway layout and a new pedestrian crossing, to allow formation of new public space with raised seating and siting of seasonal huts for commercial use.

A Freedom of Information request dated in 2018 showed that more than £50,000, including VAT, had already been spent on the project in professional fees for architects, engineers, chartered surveyors and other fees/charges.

A further £64,834 had been earmarked for the scheme, and this will now be ring-fenced for alternative and "more achievable" improvements to the seafront after councillors agreed to scrap the scheme over procedural and financial concerns, saying it was "beyond the scope and resources of the town council".

A public question and answer session will now be held at the request of town councillor Dan Ledger, offering residents to opportunity to scrutinise the decision.

The meeting will be held via video conferencing app Zoom on Thursday, January 7 at 6.30pm and members of the public can join by downloading Zoom and following the link [L]https://zoom.us/j/7655637928[L]https://zoom.us/j/7655637928[.L]

Alternatively, the session will be live on Facebook and residents will be able to ask questions via the comments box.