SAVE OUR CEMETERY
Two years ago Teignbridge announced a proposal to convert the Chapel and other attached buildings in Teignmouth Old Cemetery, Exeter Road to residential accommodation.
There was a huge public outcry and many people wrote to Teignbridge to object to the proposal.
All went quiet and the proposal was never submitted to the Planning Committee.
In the mean time a Community “Right to Buy” proposal was submitted to Teignbridge to enable some protection against any future commercial development of the Chapel. That was rejected by Teignbridge on the grounds that the Chapel was not in community use. Catch 22. Of course it wasn’t in community use because Teignbridge had allowed the buildings to fall into neglect and had boarded them up.
On Friday 13th January Teignbridge issued a new announcement (out of the blue) in the local paper (buried on p64) asking for Expressions of Interest for the renovation of the Chapel etc for community use. They have given only 8 working days to reply.
On the face of it this might suggest that Teignbridge have had a change of heart. But cynically it could be the reverse …. By burying it on p64 and only allowing 8 days to reply they could be hoping that no expressions of interest come forward. They could then say that they have had no expression of community interest and would then legitimately pursue commercial development.
Such a development could in turn lead (legally) to the conversion of the Old Cemetery land into land for building, destroying a significant part of Teignmouth’s history and heritage going back over 150 years.
We need to marshall a lot of community support over the next couple of weeks if we want to protect the cemetery. If you agree to trying to keep the Cemetery and buildings in community use please send an email to that effect to: gravetales@gmail.com.
If you are able to give any direct help in putting together an Expression of Interest, organising publicity and drumming up support please include that in your email as well.
We already planning a few things and will let everyone know as soon as we have definite details.
Teignmouth Old Cemetery 
Happy to help as I believe strongly that the only development of the buildings within Teignmouth Old Cemetery should be for community use and definitely not private ownership.
Also agree the notice in last week’s Teignmouth Post came out of the blue and think it worrying that there is such a short time for us to respond .
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Please keep our ancient chapel, buildings and cemetery as is.
They are not to be used for resident accommodation.
Save our heritage.
Yours truly,
Edna Marlow
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Thanks Edna. We are making some good progress. Keep following the posts.
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There is a Teignmouth charity working on a renovation plan. There is a very good chance they will get a feasibility study grant.
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Thanks for that information. You’ll see from the latest post that I have managed to track it down and have had an initial meeting to see if we could work together to put together a stronger bid by demonstrating a broader cross-section of community interest.
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