A POPULAR bar-diner on Portland Harbour has lost its application to expand.

Billy Winters, just off the Ferrybridge, had asked Dorset council to allow a bigger building with a first-floor addition.

A planning appeal has now decided that the changes will not be allowed – because of the impact it would have on the Heritage Coast.

The proposals would have continued the shipping container theme at the site which the business put in place when it was first approved.

Application papers said the business had continued to flourish over two years and wanted to increase its space to cope with growing demand.

Dorset Echo: How Billy Winters wanted to expand their premises How Billy Winters wanted to expand their premises

The proposals included another bar area, better toilets and disabled access – keeping the existing diner building, although covering it in reclaimed timber cladding, and using eight shipping containers of varying sizes, some cut down to expand the site.

Agents said the use of the shipping containers, reclaimed timber and quarry waste stone would help create an extension which “responds to the site’s context, landscape, environment, access and viability to produce a scheme that is not intended as back ground architecture, but as a hub for an increasingly popular venue to enjoyed by all.”

The application also asked for the current planning consent to be extended to a minimum of ten years from the completion of the expansion.

The appeal, made in the name of Ferrybridge Marine Ltd, was prompted by Dorset Council failing to make a decision on the original application submitted in June 2020.

Dorset Echo: Billy Winters aimed to expand their business which overlooks the coastBilly Winters aimed to expand their business which overlooks the coast

The planning inspector, Matthew Jones, said of the application: “Its two storey and linear form would rise against the sky, offering a scale incongruous to the character of this section of coastline and its otherwise modest built form.

"The harm would be perceptible from the causeway and the beaches around it and would reach significant levels in proximity, in my opinion.

"As this is an intrinsic issue of scale and height, the harm would not be mitigated by the proposed finish materials nor the building’s vegetated shingle roof.”