Author Julie Hearn is based in Oxfordshire but lives, for two months of the year, at the Devoncourt resort in Exmouth. She calls her room there home from home and is one of the people objecting to plans to demolish the Devoncourt to make way for a new development of, mostly luxury apartments.

SATURDAY I arrive at the Devoncourt on an unseasonably warm day to begin a month’s stay in the spacious self-catering room I call home from home.

The receptionists remember me and welcome me warmly. Adam, the maintenance man, tells me there is another writer staying; a former foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. I will probably meet this guy in the lounge, Adam says and I don’t doubt it. The Devoncourt lounge has to be one of the most convivial places in England, never mind Exmouth.

SUNDAY The Devoncourt stands in four acres of sub-tropical gardens. . This evening I sit on the terrace, watching the sun sink behind a row of laurels. I can hear robins singing and, beyond them, the sound of waves breaking on sand.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” says a local resident enjoying a quiet drink at the next table. Was he aware, I asked, of plans to demolish this beautiful place to make way for seventy seven luxury apartments? Yes, he replied, he knew all about that. And was he among the 145 people who have lodged objections to the plans?

“No,” he said. “I didn’t object. What’s the point?”

MONDAY I walk around Exmouth Marina. Most of the apartments there appear to be unoccupied now that summer is over. ….. Shutters closed. No flowers on balconies. No sense, whatsoever, of community. Back at the Devoncourt Phil, who has tended the grounds for thirty two years, is sweeping leaves fallen from a giant copper beech. That tree, unlike the building beside it, is protected by a ‘preservation order. I imagine future leaves falling onto the empty balconies of empty holiday apartments. Really, is the whole of Exmouth seafront to become a part time playground, or nice little earner, for the already rich?

TUESDAY Thoughts about the Devoncourt, from fellow long stay guests: “Gloriously quirky. A cross between Fawlty Towers and Manderley” … “Like a place in a Merchant Ivory film” … “One of the few truly charming, and relatively affordable, hotels left.” … “What, the tree will stay but everything else could go? Are you sure? That’s appalling.”

WEDNESDAY I position myself in the lounge, the better to waylay people who come for a meal, or a cream tea, or to use the leisure facilities including a gym, sauna and steam room, a snooker room, an indoor pool, plus an outdoor pool in summer. I meet long stayers Tony and Moira, Bella from Budleigh Salterton, and Colin, Connie and Bob who live in Exmouth. We all wish that somebody with pots of money would fall in love with the Devoncourt, pay for the renovations we know are needed, needed, and keep the place going much as it is. The Christmas lights display … the croquet lawn … the legendary Sunday roasts … Even the leisure club’s old massage chair, that pinches your bottom like a pervert at a party would be missed were it to go.

THURSDAY It is naïve, I get told, to imagine anyone swooping in to save the Devoncourt. Money .talks.. You can’t halt progress. And folk on TripAdvisor are calling the Devoncourt “shabby”. Those folk, I retort, deserve all the blandness and uniformity a Premier Inn can throw at them. Later, while having my bottom pinched by the massage chair, I talk to Alam (sic) who manages the Devoncourt’s leisure club and has been working at the resort l for twenty two years. “The staff here are like family, ” Alam says, “And the people who come here are good friends to me and to each other. Every day, it is a pleasure to come to work.”

Nothing shabby about that.

FRIDAY: I learn, from a local news website, that a wealthy Investor in the Far East, has recently bought the Marine Hotel in Paignton. This investor now has a £150 million, and growing, property portfolio of Torbay tourist locations. And, although places acquired previously have been demolished to make way for new development, the Marine Hotel is going to stay put and continue to trade. An Exeter based estate agent said: “We are seeing continued demand in the market from investors seeking well-located hotels, especially those in waterside positions.”

So, come on you investors. Come see the Devoncourt. Before it is lost forever.