Appeal over controversial Exmouth hotel plans thrown out due to ‘demonstrable harm’

Controversial plans to rebuild an Exmouth hotel have been rejected at appeal because of the “significant and demonstrable harm” it would cause.

Applicant Azim Lalani wants to demolish the Devoncourt Hotel and replace it with a 65-bed alternative, and also build four apartment blocks with a combined 66 homes.
One of the blocks would have been for 15 affordable properties, with some being rented or for shared ownership.
The scheme was rejected by East Devon District Council’s planning committee in May last year, but the developer lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate earlier this year.
The strength of feeling against the proposal was fuelled at the time by the building being generally considered as the town’s finest hotel before it became timeshare accommodation under 25-year leases in the 1980s.
Now the planning inspector has backed the council’s position, rejecting the appeal.
“Even taken collectively, the benefits of the scheme do not outweigh the significant or demonstrable harms that would result from the scheme,” the inspector said.
The inspector backed the view that the redevelopment would impact on one neighbouring property in particular, which was one of the reasons East Devon planners originally rejected the plans.
“Due to the proximity of these features [including rear balconies and a roof terrace] to the boundary with No 14A, even though the design techniques employed would largely avoid direct overlooking, the sense of being overlooked from within the house and garden of No 14A would be markedly increased, particularly so from the use of balconies and the terrace which would be much larger and more practically useable for sitting out than those present on the existing hotel,” the inspector said.
As such, the inspector said the development would be “materially harmful to the living conditions” of the occupiers of 14A.
More widely, the scheme would have breached certain design criteria in The Avenues area.
One key concern the planning committee raised was that the proposal would mean around 42 per cent of the site would be developed, yet planning policies for The Avenues state that only 25 per cent of plots should have buildings on them.
The inspector stated that the multiple buildings in the proposed scheme would mean a “notable change” from what is there now, and that this would “reduce the sense of spaciousness” to the rear of the hotel.
“These changes would be visible from The Maer, from Maer Road and in the small number of glimpsed views available from Foxholes Hill,” the inspector added.
“My view is that the changes would not be visually dominating, given the context of the site and its established verdant qualities, but would nonetheless result in adverse effects to the character and appearance of the area.”
The inspector was less critical about the design of the scheme, which attracted some negative comments from the planning committee last year.
The inspector said while she did “not consider the design of the replacement hotel would be a truly outstanding example of modern architecture”, she noted other modern buildings nearby, such as the lifeboat station, and so the proposed hotel’s appearance would be “individual but not alien”.
“It is evident that different aspects of the proposal pull in different directions, but my overall finding is that there would be harm from the loss of openness of the character and appearance of the area and that this would be of a low to moderate adverse localised nature overall,” the inspector said.
When the scheme was being considered by planners last year, Malcolm Gigg, agent for the applicant, said the scheme would benefit the area by providing “much-needed” residential and hotel accommodation.
Mr Gigg told that meeting that while the hotel had tried to modernise its business model, moving away from timeshares towards regular hotel stays, remaining price competitive meant charging fees that didn’t fully reflect the cost of cleaning and heating some of the sizeable rooms.
“In some cases, a single occupancy room fee is being applied to an entire apartment,” he said.
“The hotel offering now is old and poor, and the proposal is for a new, enhanced hotel offering for Exmouth.”