Great Western Coffee Shop

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-87877405.html

Be a right PIG to install any White Goods, furniture etc as it all needs humping over the footbridge. ;)

One would assume that vehicular access in the current self storage yard (former rail land on the up side) is part of the planning permission and development.

From the planning decision (https://www.torbay.gov.uk/W2Planning/StreamDocPage/obj.pdf?DocNo=11011991&PageNo=1&content=obj.pdf)


and


but then

The plan appears to show the lever frame remaining on the Second floor living area but not in the First floor sleeping area. This is not possible as the part of the frame below the old operating floor on the second floor is required to support the levers and indeed to support the floor. The ground floor may also contain floor supports this is more difficult to assess as this arrangment of a floor below the locking room is unusual in a GWR box.
The picture at the bottom of this webpage showing the same type of frame from Weston Rhyn lying on its side outside the box gives some idea of the bulk of metal involved below the operating floor.
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/weston_rhyn/index3.shtml (http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/weston_rhyn/index3.shtml)

Seems quite imaginative rather than letting it fall into dereliction.

It'll be interesting to see how it looks once completely converted.

Nope. No right of access via the storage yard!

It would be a courageous person who would buy a property without any right of access.  Is there a pedestrian right of access either through the station or storage yard?

Through the station, yes. On a one-off basis, such as for building (or heaver decorating) work, access via the storage yard might well be agreed. However, unattended access via that route seems very unlikely. Buying land for an access route on that side also looks hard to get - no doubt everything has a price, but in that case it's likely to be "too much".

Very interesting that it's a self-storage facility that allows access for long hours to its customers - including 24 hour by arrangement.   For specific known people who pay and are insured, I would hazard a guess that access would be somewhat easier to negotiate than were it through a typical industrial setting.   Pure academic speculation - we are simplifying these days not taking on more projects! https://dainton.com/location/torquay/

There's a lot about this that's not clear at first reading. For a start, the latest planning approval was in 2016, and had a standard three-year limit on starting work, so it has lapsed.

In 2016 there was a pair of applications, one for planning approval (P/2016/0145/PA) and one for listed building consent (P/2016/0146/LB). Both were treated together, with almost identical documents, and those documents don't make the pairing clear. (Graham's link to the "planning decision" is actually to the planning officer's report for P/2016/0146/LB.)

The original version of the application proposed polycarbonate panes in the existing frames on th ground floor. This was changed (following discussions with the planning and heritage departments) to a secondary glazing in polycarbonate, as being more robust and so secure. (See below!)  Where the selling agent's details talk about planning being "implemented", that's all they are referring to. What they mean by "building regulations have been passed by the local authority" is anyone's guess.

That officer's report contains the planning history, starting with a first (and virtually identical) application in 2010. It also says the signal box wasn't listed then, and this happened in 2013 just as the applicant was trying to get hie approval extended (which wasn't then allowed), and he gave up for a while. But that's not quite true.

The signal box was sold by Railtrack in 1994, and acquired by its present owner in 2004. That owner (and the applicant) is Mr J Rushworth acting as (or for) Rail Property Investments of Boston Lincs. In 2010 he put in two applications, one for planning approval (P/2010/0835/PA) and one for listed building consent (P/2010/0836/LB). They were granted subject to the condition that an alternative security treatment for the ground-floor windows was found as the proposed outer polycarbonate secondary glazing was found to have "unacceptable impact upon the listed building"!

The listing notice is included in the D&A statement (which seems to have disappeared from the later applications). It mentions the station buildings and footbridge, but not the signal box. I wonder if the applicant tried arguing that the signal box was not included, and as a result it got included - I suspect he'd be more than a little miffed by that! In any case there was a gap from then to 2016.

If you have read the planning officer's report, you'll have seen this comment from GWR:

On a factual matter, the building already has a WC, so presumably it does have water and foul drainage. From the pictures, it also has lighting and sockets as you'd expect with mains electricity. Those services are probably not routed via the station and across the tracks, so GWR know nothing about them. Our Mr. Rushworth was obviously not happy with the general tone of that comment - I guess in his line of business he (or they) spends a lot of time banging his head against the powers that run trains. He counter-commented :

This was approved based on the officers report on the 21 July 2016 and provided a start was made within 3 years then there is no time limit to completion.

Having attended many Torbay planning committees in person and since June via zoom the committee usually accept the officers recommendation, approval or refusal,  or defer for more information. Legal officers also give their opinion if a refusal  is made as to the implications to the council; ie being taking to planning inquiry and the legal costs if they lose. This January there is a planning inquiry over the refusal of 370 homes on a greenfield site.

Looking at the plans the locking bars and connecting rods below the frame must have been removed leaving the lever frame as merely decorative.

Below is the original plans the architects worked from. It is unusual in that it had no external staircase except to the cellar.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50795575888_a474c82d9f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2koCB2b)torre signal box (https://flic.kr/p/2koCB2b) by Robert (https://www.flickr.com/photos/revupminster/), on Flickr

The auction was today and I've heard it went for £67,500.  VAT and buyer's premium need to be added so the total cost to the buyer is around £87,000.

I hope the winning bidder has the money and determination to restore the box.  Would be lovely to see.