So the battle to keep the toilets and the shelter is over, but never mind because the seating will be reused somewhere, eventually, and the multiple male and female toilets will be replaced by a couple of accessible ones. Interestingly East Devon District Council had been accepting of the fact that this was not enough provision and that we needed extra toilets , until planning permission for those by the Swimming Pool was refused. When that happened it was suddenly OK to go ahead with the demolition of the Toilet Block and Shelter and forget extra provision.
The important points for EDDC in this transaction seem to be a) getting the best return from Rockfish for the land EDDC bought on the supposition that they could over-develop Port Royal and make a killing and b) getting rid of the expense of maintaining the toilets. For these reasons they have ridden roughshod over the fact that they only hold the land round the Toilet Block and Shelter because of the way responsibilities were split when District Councils were created in a Government reorganisation. This meant that while the Ham Charity retained most of the land gifted to Sidmouth by Mr Radford in 1896, with his stated intention it should be freely available in perpetuity to residents of and visitors to Sidmouth as a Pleasure Ground, the District Council was responsible for Public Toilets and so became the owner of part of this Charity land.
Of course, as it was Charity Land designated as a Pleasure Ground for the above mentioned groups EDDC only held the land under the provisions of the Charity; land with a stated purpose is known as Designated Charity Land. Designated Land is supposed to have extra protection against selling off. This has not stopped them from selling a lease on the land and passing what should be public land into the hands of a private business. You will now not be able to sit and rest in seats at Port Royal unless you have bought something from Rockfish.
But now it seems as though any control has moved even further away from the hands of the District Council or the Charity Trustees Sidmouth Town Council. In the EDDC press release this week Mitch Tonks, Rockfish owner said that they would be selling on the 125 year lease they had bought from EDDC.
“We are investing around £2m in the Drill Hall location and will be creating 30 – 40 jobs. Once the building is developed, as part of our agreement with the Council, we will be looking to “sell” the long leasehold interest in the building by way of an assignment of the lease. At the same time Rockfish will be granted a long lease at current market rent. This sale & leaseback type of transaction is in the normal course of business for a company like ours whereby we recoup some of our investment in return for paying rent.”
While it is good for the town that the Drill Hall be repurposed, while retaining its unique interior as much as possible, this assignment of the lease may be a problem.
Who will they assign the lease to? Perhaps a developer looking to create a high density redevelopment if Rockfish ever decided to close its Sidmouth operation? Or a bank which will be happy to sell it on to the highest bidder in the future?
We were able to stop the large building that EDDC wanted to put up at Port Royal in part because the restrictions on Designated Charity Land which were in place on the toilet block and shelter made it tricky, this will never be the case again. By placing it in the lease to Rockfish they have effectively removed it from the land owned by the Charity, it will be interesting to see what the new Land Registry documents say once they are available.
It is reasonable to be concerned that if Rockfish closes for any reason within the next 125 years then Sidmouth will have a real fight on its hands if it wants to limit redevelopment at Port Royal.
