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Drake's Island in the Plymouth Sound

There are big new plans for Drake’s Island in Plymouth – Dan McCauley, former chairman of Plymouth Argyle, plans to build an exclusive boutique hotel there. As Plymouth hotels go, this would potentially attract visitors from all over the world. Aiden McCauley, Dan’s son, is managing the project and his first step is to get planning permission from Plymouth Council. If this goes through, work will start in 2012 and the island in the middle of Plymouth Sound could be ready to receive visitors within 2 years.
McCauley first bought the island for £384,000 in 1995 through agents Messrs Knight, Frank and Rutley who were acting on behalf of Crown Estates. He fought off serious bids from a number of competitors and his plans were to create a maritime theme park. He proposed building a luxury hotel, complete with helipad, and presented his plans to Plymouth City Council in 2003. However, the plans were turned down and, as McCauley himself admits, the island’s six and a half acres of volcanic lava and marine limestone have deteriorated during the intervening years and the military barracks are now derelict.

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In fact, the only activity on the island in the intervening years was a protest by anti-nuclear protesters, Trident Ploughshares, whose aim was to use non-violent direct action to have the Trident missile system disarmed. The Plymouth-based group, also known as the Tamarians, gained publicity when twelve of them occupied one of the deserted buildings as a squat on May 13th 2005 and declared the island a nuclear free state. Along with supporters from all over the country, they set up a peace camp to "highlight Britain's hypocrisy over the non proliferation treaty talks being held in New York". The protestors left the island of their own accord on May 19th 2005 and moved to Devil’s Point.

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There have been previous attempts to make good use of Drake’s Island during the 20th century. It was leased by Plymouth City Council from 1963 and the Mayflower Trust ran a youth adventure training centre there until 1989.
While Plymouth City Council held the lease the island gained access to some more modern facilities: the mains water supply was provided in 1964, the same year that Drake’s Island Adventure Centre opened; and the first telephone line was installed on May 1st 1987, replacing the Ministry of Defence system that had previously been used. After the Mayflower Trust and Plymouth City Council relinquished the lease, ownership of the island returned to the Crown.

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 The new plans for Drake’s Island have been drawn up by architects Lacey Hickie Caley, the firm that designed Plymouth Aquarium, and the McCauleys have worked with Plymouth City Council and English Heritage to ensure that the regeneration is in keeping with the history of the island. The McCauleys expect the development to cost around £10 million, which includes turning the Grade II listed Napoleonic barracks into a smart and fashionable hotel with a spa and restaurant, and building a special visitor centre. They anticipate that the new planning application will be submitted by the end of 2011. Assuming the application is successful this time around, McCauley’s Tiverton-based building company, Rotolok Ltd, which sponsored Plymouth Argyle from 1992 to 1998, expects to start work early in the New Year.

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