Marketing expert Carolyn Dunn aims to promote the Seaton brand

SEATON’S new town development manager has begun the job of improving the resort’s appeal to shoppers and tourists.

Carolyn Dunn, took up her post last week, and is already busy preparing to draw up an action plan to promote the town.

She has moved to Seaton from Norwich and is renting while she looks around for a home to buy.

Most recently chief executive of the City Management Company in York, she started her career in advertising and marketing and then moved into town centre management. Posts in Huddersfield and then Norwich followed, and Carolyn also became a director of the Association of Town Centre Management, which has an international reputation as a centre of excellence.

She confesses to having a soft spot for Seaton, having holidayed in the town in the 1990s and early 2000s when her late parents had a holiday flat on the seafront.

She said: “I always thought Seaton was very attractive, with the potential to become even more appealing and improve its economic prosperity.”

Based in an office at St Clare’s, Carolyn has an initial two-year contract funded by East Devon District Council and Seaton Town Council, with a contribution from Tesco.

She added: “I want to make contact with all the key people in the private and public sectors and listen to what they have to say. Then I want to co-ordinate an action plan with a timetable that must be realistic and on a budget. We will need to manage people’s expectations, but I want to find out what the Seaton brand is and then we can start to market the town using that branding.”