Temporary units at Ilfracombe water sports centre compared to 'Guantanamo Bay'

Temporary changing rooms and storage units are to be placed near Ilfracombe’s forthcoming water sports centre.

Ten years in the planning, construction work on the centre at Larkstone Lane finally began in 2021, and should be completed in the coming months.

In the two years since, local businesses have expressed their interest in working out of the centre, but there will be no room there to facilitate them.

To fix that, North Devon District Council will place shipping containers at a nearby car park which construction workers at the water sports site are currently using to store their equipment.

The containers will be used as additional changing rooms and storage space for equipment such as kayaks.

Residents near the sports centre have been left wondering why these facilities were not considered in the original plans.

Some people feel that putting shipping containers in the car park would affect the 'picturesque' appearance of Ilfracombe’s waterfront, with one comparing the plans to Guantanamo Bay’s prison yard.

The owner of an adventure sports business who wants to use the new centre said the additions will help him expand his business, and encourage young people to get into water sports.

He claimed that the temporary development will provide a 'safe' environment for instructors, and that it will give people apprenticeship and training opportunities with local water sports businesses.

Cllr Paul Crabb (Conservative, Ilfracombe West) supported the 'brilliant' plans, but raised concerns over the two-metre fence that is set to be erected to protect the equipment.

“We’ve got to be in favour of it I think,” he said at a planning committee meeting on Wednesday [8 February]. “Because it’s an absolutely brilliant asset, and the fact that people are coming out of the woodwork demanding to use this facility is brilliant.

“It’s just anything that can be done to minimise the visual impact – mainly the fence – I think the containers you can get over.”

The temporary facilities need to be gone by 10 February 2028, and Cllr Geoffrey Fowler (Liberal Democrats, Ilfracombe West) suggested that the temporary site can always become something more permanent in future.

“Although this is a temporary arrangement, we’ve got to bear in mind that if we do take off as we’re hoping to – as a huge centre that encompasses the whole of the harbour – we’ll be looking at some point in the future to some more permanent fixtures for the harbour,” he said.

“It will be to the benefit of, not only local people, but to the whole of North Devon as well,” he added.

The development was unanimously approved, but Cllr Crabb asked that the height of the fence be limited to 1.8 metres.