COUNCILLORS have demanded that sloping windows on a “nationally significant” building are reinstated by a pizza takeaway.

Domino’s Pizza has applied retrospectively for permission to change the windows of the former Café Royal site on Tannery Road. The original planning permission from West Dorset District Council states the business must keep the sloping windows - but members of Bridport Town Council believe the company has “wilfully gone against it” and has now applied retrospectively for permission to keep the new windows.

Speaking at Monday’s plans committee, Cllr Anne Rickard, said: “It’s cheek. To do what you like and come back later with a new application is not the way to do it. They were not given permission to change the slope of the windows.”

Leader of the council, Cllr Sarah Williams, proposed that the authority object to the retrospective application and “ask the windows are replaced as a sloping shopfront”.

She added: “When they replaced the windows, they were told to replace them with sloping windows.

“It has completely changed the look of the café.”

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

The former Café Royal, pictured earlier this year

Cllr Dave Rickard said that the building could be listed to help protect it from changes.

He added: “They were told that they did not have permission to change them and the easy solution is to put in a retrospective application.

“There was a specific request in the original application that it is not changed and they have wilfully gone against it.”

Councillors objected to the application and highlighted a plea from the Twentieth Century Society for the original windows of the “local icon” to be restored.

Tess Pinto, conservation adviser for the Twentieth Century Society, said: “We wish to object to this application, and urge that West Dorset District Council enforce the reinstatement of these windows, with all dimensions as close to the originals as possible.

“Although we consider that these works have caused significant harm to a building of interest in a conservation area, reinstatement will go some way to restoring the character of the building, which is a local icon.”

She added: “The society considers that Café Royal could have been nationally significant as a unique example of a mid-century roadside café prior to development.

“The historic interest of this building typology is often overlooked, and independent roadside cafes are at risk of vanishing without record.”

In a planning document for the revised application, Fergus Sykes, senior planner for Pegasus, agent for Domino’s, said: “Once works started it was established that the new frames could not be accommodated at the angle required to retain the sloping windows as there would be the potential for a significant risk to the health and safety of passers-by and users of the car park.”

Residents have until Saturday (20) to comment on the application at dorsetforyou.com