At a packed event last week (Thursday 14th November), Wayne Hemingway presented his team’s vision for Queen’s Drive Exmouth.
Around 200 people attended the public exhibition at the Ocean Centre on Exmouth seafront to listen to Hemingway Design and to ask questions. The audience was made up of Exmouth people, businesses and community organisations all with an interest in the town’s future success.
A steady flow of local people had already visited Ocean the day before (Wednesday 13th) for a preview of the exhibition and to discuss with members and council officers their thoughts about the future of the Queen’s Drive site.
Hemingway Design has captured the ideas and opinions of local people, visitors and organisations using a number of different methods, including an online survey, stakeholder events and a great deal of publicity. The culmination of which, was that yesterday evening Wayne and his team pulled all the feedback together to explain what their ideas are.
East Devon District Council has also used the skills and experience of commercial property agents Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) who have a great feel for the leisure market. The combination of Hemingway Design’s vision and LSH’s commercial awareness will help deliver the best mix of attractions and activities on the site. The result is a mixture of good public realm free play space and commercial uses, which will complement the wider seafront and the best of the environment that Exmouth offers.
Wayne Hemingway said: “It was great to come back to Exmouth and talk about what an amazing place the seafront is and how it can be enhanced. I’ve seen how successful the meanwhile space attractions have been and the water sports centre development is well underway. Add to this a fresh approach to the waterfront café and a new relevant and complementary accommodation offer, then the Queen’s Drive area and Exmouth will be able to position itself as a seaside town with wonderful natural wellbeing and outdoor leisure opportunities. This furthering of the town’s natural values will bring new visitors, offer more to local people and fit sympathetically into the surrounding natural environment of the beach, the Maer, Madeira Walk and those other marvellous assets you hold dear.”
The next stage will be a final report from Hemingway Design and East Devon will then decide what it wants to do next to take the Queen’s Drive site forward with the benefit of vision and an understanding what can now be achieved at Queen’s Drive. In the meantime, the council is planning another season of popular temporary uses for Queen’s Drive Space, while long terms plans get underway.
To see the exhibition materials visit: https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/exmouth-opportunities-queens-drive/
If you have views to express then please email them to: [email protected] by Friday 29 November.
