Winning 86% support for Paignton Pavilion in Torbay
Winning 86% support for Paignton Pavilion in Torbay
KOR Communications designed and delivered the community and stakeholder engagement for Paignton Pavilion, Fragrance Group's proposed year-round conferencing and events venue for up to 500 guests on Paignton seafront. More than 135 people attended the March 2026 exhibition, 86 per cent of consultation respondents backed a new facility of this kind, and the application now awaits determination by Torbay Council.
The project
The former Inn on the Green sits on Paignton seafront beside the Mercure and Ibis Styles hotels, both opened by international property developer and one of the largest private investors in the English Riviera, The Fragrance Group. With the pub closed since 2024, the Group brought forward proposals for Paignton Pavilion, a year-round conferencing and events venue for up to 500 guests.
We were appointed to design and deliver the community and stakeholder engagement and prepare the Statement of Community Involvement ahead of the planning application being submitted to Torbay Council.
Our approach
We mapped the neighbouring addresses and a stakeholder network spanning the Member of Parliament for Torbay, the Council's Leader, Cabinet and Planning Committee, and the area's business and tourism bodies, supporting direct invitations to neighbours and stakeholders with a launch press release setting out the proposals and how to take part.
We built a dedicated project website paignton-pavilion.co.uk to provide a hub for the consultation, presenting the proposals alongside the history of the site and seafront and introducing the design team.
On 10 March 2026 we ran a stakeholder preview and public drop-in exhibition at the Ibis Styles hotel adjacent to the site, publishing the display boards and feedback form on the website the same day so that the consultation remained open online for a further three weeks.
The outcome
More than 135 people attended the exhibition and the project website received over 1,700 visits. Of the 138 people who completed the feedback form in person or online, 86 per cent believed Paignton would benefit from a new facility of this kind and 95 per cent found the consultation useful. The launch and exhibition secured coverage across the region, including Devon Live, the Herald Express, the Western Morning News and Torbay Weekly.
Heritage emerged as the top local priority, and questions about parking, public access to the building and the retention of the site's mature palm trees were each addressed in the applicant's response, which forms part of the Statement of Community Involvement submitted with the application.
The planning application is now with Torbay Council and awaits determination.
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A Statement of Community Involvement needs to show who was consulted, how they were consulted, what feedback was received and how the proposals responded to it. For Paignton Pavilion, KOR Communications documented direct invitations to neighbours and stakeholders, a public exhibition attended by more than 135 people, 138 completed feedback forms and the applicant's response to the priorities raised, including heritage and parking, in the statement submitted with the planning application to Torbay Council.
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Fragrance Group has submitted a planning application to Torbay Council to replace the former Inn on the Green, closed since September 2024, with Paignton Pavilion, a year-round conferencing and events venue for up to 500 guests. The application awaits determination.
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Long enough for people who could not attend an event to respond in full. For Paignton Pavilion, KOR Communications published the exhibition display boards and feedback form online on the day of the March 2026 drop-in event and kept the consultation open for a further three weeks, and of the 138 people who responded in person or online, 95 per cent found the consultation useful.