Your recent interview with the new mayor, Darryl Nicholas, showed the kind of bright ideas and energy to put them into practice that we appreciate in him.

Your recent interview with the new mayor, Darryl Nicholas, showed the kind of bright ideas and energy to put them into practice that we appreciate in him.

We support his approach, but there is certainly one idea which requires deeper questioning and debate before it is taken any further That is the proposal to build a multi-storey car-park at the London Inn site.

The Exmouth Community Association recognises and has stressed the need for additional parking to serve the whole of the town centre area, but considers this should be part of a clear and agreed strategy for the development of the town.

As presented, we consider that this one-off proposal for a monolithic decked car-park in the London Inn site is not appropriate because:

l access would be problematic, damaging the traditional character of adjoining streets by more or less doubling the traffic

l plans for the proposed development of the London Inn Car Park and Jewson's store and builder's yard for shops, affordable housing and parking at the current level would be seriously compromised.

l it is likely to be an unsightly addition to a mainly residential area, spoiling one of the attractive town features of people living close to the centre

l out of hours, the multi-storey car-park would become a focus for anti-social behaviour

l air quality in the locality and the approach roads would suffer.

This limited concept upstages an overall view of town-centre regeneration.

On September 29, 2004, the East Devon District Council's Executive Board received a significant report from Karime Hassan on the regeneration of Exmouth, including the following statement (paragraph 10) on the London Inn: "This demand (identified by retail consultants) would allow for a more traditional form of high street scheme to be designed around the constraints of the London Inn site, in particular integrating development into the historic street structures and scale of existing development would assist with the land assembly and servicing issues and therefore make a redevelopment scheme more viable and ultimately deliverable"

That accords with our views. We believe the new and piecemeal proposal is a 20th Century solution in a changing 21st Century transport and retail context and that, if the necessary funding is available, it could be better directed to other developments in the town centre - including preferable options to improve the parking situation, which ECA has already put forward.

Roy Pryke,

Chairman of Exmouth Community Association.