'Tired' owners sell Lyme's only seafront hotel (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

'Tired' owners sell Lyme's only seafront hotel

4:17pm Thursday 2nd July 2009

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THE owners of Lyme’s only seafront hotel have this week sold their business after becoming ‘tired’ of seven years of local bureaucracy.

The Bay Hotel has sparked much controversy since it was saved from closure five years ago and recently redeveloped as a restaurant, café and hotel suites.

Its revamp has been fraught with arguments over boundary issues, its use as hotel apartments, the enforced removal of the building’s signs, and the major redevelopment of the adjoining annexe.

Owners Larry and Gina Gibbons yesterday sold the hotel and ground floor Thai restaurant to Lyme Regis couple Brendon and Lynn Cable and their business partner Eric Bosence.

Mr Gibbons exclusively told the News: “I have had it seven years now and it has been a roller coaster to say the least.

“I didn’t have enough but my body had enough. I was getting tired, mentally tired.

“But we are very proud of what we have done. I feel we have come out at the end with a smile on our face.”

Mr and Mrs Cable, of Shire Lane, and Mr Bosence, an accountant based in Bournemouth, will continue to run the Thai restaurant throughout the summer and plan to further raise the standard of the hotel suites.

Mr Cable said: “It is a Thai restaurant on a temporary basis. We are expecting to change it into more of a traditional bistro and it will be changed before Christmas.

“We also want to get the rooms up to a slightly higher standard but Larry and Gina have already done tremendously well.”

The new owners are all school friends from the Woodroffe School and said the hotel’s location was its main appeal.

“It’s smack in the middle of the seafront with beautiful views and it has been altered very tastefully,” said Mr Cable.

“Larry and Gina brought it very nicely to a plateau where we felt very comfortable in taking the next step with it.

“I think they are just a bit tired of the bureaucracy and it’s just right for taking over and boosting up a bit.”

The new owners say they have not been fazed by the past controversy, especially as Mr and Mrs Cable formerly ran Jane’s Café on the Marine Parade.

Mr Cable said: “We are prepared to go with it – I know the ropes because I have had a tough time at Jane’s Café too.

“We are hoping to gain good local support and support from the council.”

Mr Cable’s nephew John and wife Tina will manage the new restaurant, and heading up the kitchen will be Iain Gutteridge, ex chef of the former Turles Bistro in Broad Street.

The new owners will also have use of a garage in Coombe Street, used for guest parking.

Selling the hotel and restaurant means Mr and Mrs Gibbons can now concentrate on their next project to replace the dilapidated hotel annexe with a ground floor café/restaurant and family home.

Mr Gibbons said the annexe would be demolished and replaced on the ground floor with a new building, which will be knocked through into the existing café to form a coffee bar by day and a Thai restaurant by night.

Above the new restaurant will be a family home for Mr and Mrs Gibbons and their 12-year-old son Lawrence.

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