Dartmouth & Kingswear Society
Dartmouth & Kingswear Society
Like many parts of England after the depression of the 1930s and World War II, Dartmouth in the 1950s was looking pretty shoddy. A few caring people felt that things must be improved and in November 1959 the Society was formed. Within a year a scheme to give the area around the Boat Float a face lift had been completed with the co-operation of all the traders.Not only the Boat Float but the area around the Lower Ferry, St. Saviour\'s Square and the Market Square were in a sad state. The area opposite St.Saviour\'s was derelict and the Society persuaded the Electricity Board to build a wall and allow trees to be planted. Later, when the Borough Council and the County Council wanted to demolish Sunderland Terrace to increase the capacity of the Lower Ferry, the Society persuaded the Councils instead to improve access to the Higher Ferry. Sunderland terrace was saved and much traffic was avoided in the centre of the town.From the beginning the Society monitored all planning applications in its area, as it continues to do.In 1963 the Society produced A Plan for Dartmouth. In the Plan a list of all buildings to be preserved was made. There were about thirty including the Butterwalk. This was before there were any Council development plans or officially listed buildings. The Plan was an all-embracing document dealing with the inhabitants, the tourists the setting, the buildings, communications, sewage, the river, car parking and traffic. The Society has commented on and contributed to every Local Plan which has since been produced by the District and County Councils. The Society tried to encourage enterprises which would provide employment leading to improved prosperity.In 1968 the Borough Council were considering total demolition of the Market and redevelopment of the site. The Society recommended that the main fabric of the Market Building should be retained and money spent on its rehabilitation and also that the redundant Methodist Church should be acquired and adapted for public use. However in 1988 a would-be developer blew it up and, even though he paid the penalty with a gaol sentence his object was achieved and the building was immediately declared dangerous and demolished to be replaced with the Wesley Court block of flats.In 1969 the Society tried to get a Conservation Area defined, though it and the Town Council would have liked a larger area than that which eventually came into being.In 1980 the Society supported the Dart Port deep-water port at Noss but, in the event, after an expensive Public Inquiry, the scheme was abandoned.In the 1990s The Society was still pressing its views on bad development, unsightly telephone poles, the tipping of rubble into the river and, of course, sewage, which had always been a problem for the town.However, probably the most important issue which the Society tackled in the 1990s dealt with the site of the former heliport and playing fields at Norton and an unsatisfactory deal between the District council and a private developer in connection with the Park and Ride site which resulted in a complaint to the Secretary of State for the Environment requesting calling in and a public inquiry. That the Society was unsuccessful is an indictment of the planning process the loss was to the town.In 1996 the Society helped to fight a planning application for a vast industrial estate at White Rock on the outskirts of Paignton in conjunction with an Action Group formed in Dittisham. The application was called in and, after a Public Inquiry in 1997, the application was eventually refused. However Torbay Council have since resurrected the proposal in reduced form and the battle will probably need to be fought again.The Society pressed for the formation of the Dart Forum and is currently represented on it. The Society has at regular intervals urged action against oil pollution from vessels on the river with, sadly, little noticeable effect. Visual pollution from the ever thickening mass of yachts, motor cruisers and pontoons is also a matter of concern which, it is hoped, will eventually be taken in hand by the Forum.Trees, the countryside and footpaths have always been matters of concern. In 1966 the Society undertook a countryside Survey. In 1970, six members of the Society made a survey of all trees over 12 feet high and produced a report which which is now of historic value and, in 1978, when the West Country Tourist Board were inviting entries for the Britain in Bloom competition for the first time, the Society, in conjunction with the Horticultural Society, initiated participation. Between 1974 and 1980 the Society landscaped and planted a two acre piece of land off Waterpool Lane called Crosby Meadow, the property of the Dartmouth Trust. Fifty commemorative trees and hundredweights of spring bulbs were planted and seven commemorative seats were donated. In 1996 the Meadow passed back to the Dartmouth Trust who now maintain it.From the very beginning the Society tried to analyse and put forward solutions to Dartmouth\'s traffic problems. It initiated many ideas, which were later taken up, such as the construction of College Way, the present one way system and the pedestrianisation of Foss Street. May 1989 found the Society calling for improved facilities at the Park and Ride. In the same year, the Society was supporting the view that no new residential building should be allowed without provision for a garage or parking. At that time two of the Society\'s Committee members were working on the impact of heavy goods vehicles on our narrow roads and the idea of trans-shipment to smaller vehicles and road to rail, which may come into being in years to come.Smaller things did not escape the Society\'s notice. A list of letters written by one chairman in the space of a very few weeks covered gulls, traffic, Blackpool Sands, rubble in the river, tree wardens, trade refuse collections and rats.Raising money for worthy causes in line with the Society\'s objects was also a regular activity: In 1983