People will be allowed on Drake's Island '365 days a year'

Plymouth people will be allowed to visit Drake’s Island “365 days a year” once it has undergone its £22million redevelopment, the new owner says.

Morgan Phillips, managing director of Plymouth Sound Properties Ltd, said he wants the newly acquired island to be open to the public.

He is pressing ahead with a project to deliver the plan for a high-end hotel envisioned by former owner Dan McCauley, the Rotolok supremo and former Plymouth Argyle chairman.

But Mr Phillips’ vision differs in that the previous owner only wanted escorted visits, opening the island for just 15 days a year.

Mr Phillips, who has set foot on the island four times, said: “We want to open the island 365 days a year to the general public. There are a lot of discussions with experts about how we run an exclusive hotel and allow the general public to use it, but we know it can be done.”

He said the dream is for people to be able to visit the island for a cream tea, for instance, and joked: “But is it going to be a Cornish cream tea or a Devon cream tea?”

He even quipped that different versions of the jam and cream scone treat could be served on different sides of the island.

But in all seriousness he said that to redevelop the island will cost somewhere between £17million and £22million, including the undisclosed purchase price. It would be funded by a combination of his firms’ own resources, international financial institutions and possibly grants.

And there could be public access during the redevelopment phase, with Mr Phillips saying: “We want to do chaperoned trips while we are working on it, so people are safe. It would be limited.”

Mr Phillips said he is already in talks with river boat cruise firms about the potential for landing visitors on the island.

He is also keen on creating a heritage centre on the island, containing information on its history and environment, and said: “It’s a living museum.”

And he is toying with the idea of creating a Friends of Drake’s Island type organisation, so people can “provide some practical help” with the project.

“We want to involve people, that’s the intention,” he said.

The businessman, whose Guardian Industrial UK (GIUK) company procures and ships engineering gear to nations such as Georgia and Kazakhstan and is involved in major construction schemes in the South West, said he planned to “repair and preserve” the buildings already on the island.

In line with planning consent already gained, he aims to transform these into a hotel, in line with planning consent which permitted the Grade-II listed Barracks and Ablutions block to become a hotel and the Casemates, listed as an Ancient Monument, transformed into luxury suites.

Mr Phillips said there could be some limited new building, such as the permitted scenic lift which will bring visitors from the landing jetty to the Governor’s House.

“There could be a lift shaft to make access to the island safe,” he explained, adding that he is already working with Natural England and Historic England.

He was unable to give a start date for work on the island, only that he wanted to begin as soon as possible.

But he said that was dependent on carrying out more surveys on the ecological a historically sensitive site.

And as for realising the dream? He said: “That is a difficult question, we have to get through these surveys to find out how long it will take. But we want to keep the people of Plymouth informed.”