Gaining planning approval for 152-room hotel regeneration proposal
Gaining planning approval for 152-room hotel regeneration proposal
KOR Communications designed and delivered the public consultation, stakeholder engagement and media relations for Fragrance Group's redevelopment of the former Park Hotel on Paignton seafront. Around 150 people attended the public exhibition, more than 2,000 visited the consultation website and over 350 submitted feedback before Torbay Council approved the scheme unanimously in 2018.
The project
Torquay's Corbyn Head hotel was one of four acquired by the Singapore-based Fragrance Group in Torbay. All four had been impacted by a lack of investment over the years and were failing to compete in what was a relatively crowded market. The Corbyn Head had 45 rooms and had changed little over the decades. It was in a prominent position between Torquay and Paignton, sat between a railway line and the main road which followed the bay's coastline, three storeys high at its tallest point and overlooked by blocks of flats to the rear, largely occupied by retirees, who had sea views.
KOR were appointed by Fragrance Group to provide a programme of pre-planning consultation and engagement work on all its Torbay regeneration proposals.
Our approach
We worked closely with architects and town planners at Torquay-based Kay Elliott to deliver an in-person exhibition supported by a project-specific website. We secured front-page pre-event coverage in the local newspaper, and stories were also carried in the newspaper's digital and social channels.
Invitations were sent by post to neighbours of the hotel. Details of the event were also emailed to a selected database of key decision makers and influencers, based on stakeholder research informed by an impact-influence exercise.
The exhibition was held at the Riviera International Centre, around half a mile from the hotel site, as it was nearby, accessible and had suitable space and facilities. The drop-in event was open to the public from the afternoon into the evening, with a morning session set aside for senior stakeholders such as council ward members, the elected mayor and MP, and key business leaders.
The outcome
The exhibition was visited by more than 100 people, with 1,200 people visiting the website in the two weeks after the proposals were unveiled. As a result of feedback from close neighbours, we arranged face-to-face meetings between the architects and representatives of residents in the flats to the rear of the hotel. The outcome of these meetings was that the hotel designs were amended so it did not sit as prominently in the landscape, and the impact on neighbours' sea views was lessened.
Amended plans for the hotel were approved by Torbay Council's planning committee in 2019. Due to Covid, it was not until 2022 that work got under way on the new property, and the new Hotel Indigo Torquay, operated by IHG, opened at the end of 2025.
Today's hotel rates 4.3 out of 5 on Tripadvisor. Its predecessor more commonly received reviews starting "Don't, just don't" or "Avoid, avoid, avoid."
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KOR's team helped bring together the architects and the neighbours so they could privately discuss options and alternatives. Ultimately, the height of the building was lowered and the number of proposed rooms reduced. While this might not have seemed like an ideal outcome from the client's perspective, it proved to be a key difference between consent and refusal.
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There was a large shift towards online engagement during Covid, with immediate benefits, beyond public health, including a reduction in the cost of a traditional in-person consultation event, and it is no longer accurate to suggest that digital communications exclude older generations. There is still great value in face-to-face meetings, however, where discussions can be more fruitful and agreements reached more quickly than in an online-only environment, particularly on more controversial proposals.