THE application for the redevelopment of the Tides Reach Hotel in South Sands has received hundreds of comments from members of the public.

And some residents of Salcombe have raised concerns over the integrity of many of the supporting comments, as the Harbour Hotel have been handing out six different letter templates from their hotel foyer.

The recently developed Harbour Hotel on Cliff Road is owned by the Harbour Hotel Group, who bought the Tides Reach last year when Eden Hotels pulled out of the project due to ‘public opposition’ to their plans, despite receiving planning permission from South Hams Council.

In the foyer of the Harbour Hotel, there are display boards and a table with six different piles of letters, for the public to sign. The letters are then collected and submitted by Harbour Hotels to South Hams Council.

One member of the public, who contacted the Gazette anonymously, said: ‘A lot of the letters agreeing to the development are exactly the same template. It’s strange to say the least, and typical example of [Harbour Hotels] trying to rig it.

‘There are letters saying that it will be good for their local business, and they are from everywhere except Devon.

‘There’s even one saying that they will be increasing their staff for 2017/18 - from Wimbledon! It’s farcical to be honest.’

Jason Parry, general manager at the Harbour Hotel insisted there was nothing untoward going on: ‘We welcome and encourage locals to visit our Salcombe Harbour Hotel to view display boards that showcase our plans for our second Salcombe property.

‘We appreciate that people may have questions on the development and we are on hand to answer any queries - we have also drafted a letter of support for those wishing to send this on to South Hams Council.’

In comments from the Keep South Sands Beautiful group, who have campaigned against the development of the hotel, they stated: ‘The SHDC planning website figures are incorrect, both as to their totals and as to their implications for the weight to be ascribed to them.

‘We have analysed the number and nature of all of the actual letters of support and, for the sake of fairness and comparison, that of the letters of objection as well.’

The group claim that of the letters of support, ‘only 27 are by individuals acting in their own right.'Of the six model letters, one of them includes a ‘five-line model letter signed by 11 individuals claiming to be local businesses that have budgeted for an increase in staff in 2018 based on the new hotel.

‘Of these only two have local addresses five have addresses elsewhere and four give no address at all.’

When asked how South Hams Council considers identikit comments, a spokesperson said: ‘It is up to an individual how they wish to make representations in connection with a planning application, as long as the individual clearly indicates their own name on each and any representation.

‘Any representations received are expected to be sent in an ethical manner and not to be of a fraudulent nature. The planning content of a letter of representation is considered during the application, the degree of weight it should be afforded is the judgement of the decision maker.’