Rob’s story: “Our community was gazumped – now we’re left with a derelict eyesore”

In 2007 the last big employer in Totnes, Dairy Crest, closed down, leaving a big industrial site to go to ruin. We immediately came together as a community to consider what could be done with the site to generate jobs, provide local, affordable housing and improve local facilities.

We got the Brunel Building on the site listed, and formed a community group to start developing plans. Over the course of a whole decade, with the site remaining unused and unsold, we worked and worked until we at last got agreement from the owners that we could develop our own community-led plan for taking on ownership of the site.

We were about to take ownership of this vital site at the heart of our community and develop it according to the community’s real needs. And that’s when things went wrong.

Between 2014 and 2016 we engaged deeply with the local community and with planning and design experts to produce a watertight plan for the site, taking into account the deep needs of the community for affordable housing and historically sensitive, carbon-neutral development.

By 2017 the financing was in place, the Community Right to Build Order had been made and 86% of local people had voted in favour of our plans in a historic local referendum.

What stood in your way?

We were about to take ownership of this vital site at the heart of our community and develop it according to the community’s real needs. And that’s when things went wrong.

…their plans for it do not even begin to address the needs of the community.

There were two years of prevarication by the owners, during which Dairy Crest were sold to Saputo Inc and became Saputo (Dairy) UK, and then in 2019 they sold it to a private business, Fastglobe (Mastics) Ltd. Of course, this company have not done anything with the site yet and their plans for it do not even begin to address the needs of the community.

How would a Community Power Act help?

It’s simple, really. If the Community Right to Buy had existed, then we would have been able to apply to list the site as an Asset of Community Value and exercised our Right to Buy it at an independently set market price. We would have had 12 months to complete the transaction, with legal protection from being gazumped. And instead of a derelict eyesore, Totnes would have had a thriving and thrilling community-owned site right at its heart, providing local jobs, affordable housing and prosperity for all.

Rob Hopkins, Totnes