Lyme Regis: Hotelier slams Bay Hotel decking restriction (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Lyme Regis: Hotelier slams Bay Hotel decking restriction

10:00am Thursday 19th April 2012 in News By Rene Gerryts

A LYME hotelier has slammed the town council for not understanding the needs of businesses in the town.

Brendon Cable of the Bay Hotel made a plea to councillors at their strategy and policy meeting last week to to allow him to level the area outside his hotel under his new awning with decking – but they refused, saying they want the area cleared at night.

But Mr Cable, who employs 11 permanent staff, said it is going to hurt his business and put jobs at risk.

He said under the terms of new licences from the town council he was having to pay £4,800 to put ten tables outside his hotel.

He said: I am trying to improve my business and it is jobs, it really is.

“I have a huge wage bill to pay out and I need every possible angle to get customers in. Having drawn people to Lyme we have got to give them something.

“Their reasons for not wanting the decking are a bit of a nonsense.

“Coun Michella Ellis raised the objection on the basis of health and safety issue. But that was covered in the planning for the awning.

“I can’t see any fire engine wanting to go underneath my awning anyway and that is where the decking was going to be. There is ample space for the fire engines to go round it.

“Then she came up with wanting to give the Marine Parade back to the public at night – we don’t finish until gone midnight some nights, so it is laughable.

“Then the objection was if I had it everyone would want it and that’s when I walked out.”

Mr Cable said the council was going to use the revenue from the tables and chairs to keep the railings “nice”.

He added: “It’s an extortionate amount – £120 per chair at a table.

“That figure is not a figure I am going to pay – it goes onto the people who are visiting Lyme Regis as a tax.

“They say they are going to use the money to keep the railings nice but that is a Lyme Regis issue not five people who have got businesses on the seafront.

“What about the people in the town that gain the benefits of the people coming to town they are not paying for the railings to be nice and new?”

Coun Lucy Campbell said: “I think it is lovely that we are allowing businesses to use the Marine Parade – it looks really attractive, however I think it is equally important that at the end of the day it is all packed away and becomes a clear public open space again.

“It is not about them using the space at all but the cordoning off and the effect that has.”

Coun Daryl Turner argued the decking should be allowed as it was at By the Bay restaurant but in the end councillors voted to refuse the request for decking but maybe look at it again next year.