WDBC, Premier Inn and the Brentites.

It would appear that the Brentites aren't only concerned with supporting the needs of wealthy individuals in concern to football clubs. They are ready and willing to back any hair brained scheme in any town it would seem.
West Devon Borough council have announced that they are going to build a new 80 bedroom Premier Inn on one of our much needed car parks which they will fund via a government loan then lease to Premier Inns. Why are WDBC borrowing money off the government to go into competition with established local businesses? We badly need investment in jobs but investing in a chain which will take all their profits out of the area and provide mainly minimum wage jobs is not the right approach.
Whilst details of the scheme have only just appeared in the public eye it would seem that plans are already well advanced. There was a meeting in the Bedford Hotel that hardly anyone knew about which the council is now claiming was a "consultation" they have a meeting in chambers on Tuesday but it is not open to questions from the public, you can ask your councillor to ask questions for you but are advised that you need to ask questions seven days before the meeting. Sounding familiar?
In a similar parallel we are already being told that this is the only scheme on the table. How did this scheme come about? Was there a tender process with say six or seven national chains approached and the best bid pushed forward? Or is it another case of a national business approaching a council and plotting behind closed doors for many many months and trying to railroad the plans through whilst everybody is trying to grasp the facts from the secret meetings they aren't party to?
Whilst there seems to be massive opposition to these plans if you look on the Tavistock FB pages there are already a host of HC's, Biggs and Nools all asking why everybody objects to these magnificent plans (without really arguing a case for the plans) ridiculing people who rightly say that all towns rely on car drivers to fill their shops, pubs and hotels and putting forward bright suggestions that maybe people should park in the school car park which is nearly a mile from town and quite rightly not open to the public other than for sports and community things.
The main point that really angers me and others I know is the way these thigs are railroaded through, the decision has been made, let's have a couple of unpublicised meetings and just get it built. It's all so, so familiar and so depressing.

Just got off the phone to a councillor who I asked to pose a question for me and they were shocked to find out that they are not taking questions from the public on Tuesday night. They added that the whole process has been the same with this project being run by about five councillors for the last five months in total secrecy.
The councillor I was talking to is actually on the car parking committee and the car park is in her ward yet she was kept out of the loop. The Hotel will have 80 beds, we are losing 80 car parking spaces and the hotel will provide 21 spaces withing the building.
Madness.

Sounds very familiar.

I'm awaiting with bated breath for the publishing of parking income from the car park in question, it's rumoured to be roughly the same as the £48k a year the council will get from Premier Inns. This all stinks of corruption and bungs.

Lol. Power to the people. Project binned.