Town Centre Regeneration - Seven Brethren

For decades until recent times, Seven Brethren was a rubbish tip. Since then, a number of commercial, retail and leisure developments have taken place including the North Devon leisure centre.

The Council has been working closely with Devon County Council to produce a draft plan of what Seven Brethren could look like in the future and is holding a number of consultation events in Barnstaple to find out what local people think to the plans.  The consultation events will be held on:

Thurs 12 March 10am-8pm at the North Devon Leisure Centre
Fri 13 and Sat 14 March 9.30am-5pm at Green Lanes Shopping Centre, Barnstaple

The ‘Master Plan’ includes improvements to pedestrian and cycle links, changing the look of the place to create more green spaces and encouraging more community use. The aim is to move away from an area dominated by traffic and bland warehouse developments to create more of a ‘destination’ rather than just an industrial estate.

Like Anchorwood Bank, Seven Brethren is on a prime riverfront location, not being used to its full potential.

Exciting plans for Seven Brethren include proposals for a new £125 million state-of-the-art college, an energy from waste plant, a refurbished leisure centre and a new Tesco store. With all of these development plans in the pipeline, the Council wants to make sure that we make the most of the sites’ potential.

The proposed new North Devon college would be located between the leisure centre car park and the Tarka tennis centre. The plans include state-of-the-art restaurant and sports facilities that will be accessible to college students and the community as a whole.

North Devon College submitted a planning application to the council in December 2008. In the meantime they would like to know what you think to their proposals. Have your say by filling in a feedback form on the college website.

Currently a planning application to build a new Tesco store on the site of the existing Brian Fords is still with the Council.