A seasonal outdoor restaurant on the heritage coast at Kimmeridge has been approved on a more permanent basis.

Until now the Boat on the Bay operation, using trailers for catering, toilets and a bar, has been limited to four weeks in the summer using permitted development rights.

The business is an off-shoot of Clavell’s Restaurant in the village.

Dorset councillors heard that the business supports local food producers and provides part and full-time employment for around twenty people.

The application for longer use, from April to September, was backed by a parish meeting earlier in the year and unanimously by the Dorset Council area planning committee when it met on Wednesday.

Its normal operation hours are expected to be 11am until 6pm, with no evening opening, despite claims in a Dorset Council report that the business wanted to continue trading into the evening during the summer.

Planning officers had recommended turning the application down arguing that it would cause ‘harm’ to the landscape if made more permanent.

But councillors rejected the council landscape officer’s view, giving a temporary consent for two years, during which time the impact of the business will be monitored.

The area planning committee heard that although the site might be wild and appear remote in the winter months, in the summer it was “anything but tranquil” with hundreds of car and vans with an expectation from many visitors that there would be something available to eat and drink.

The parish council chairman argued in his submission that a few trailers and a stretched awning for people to sit under would make little difference to the views for most of the year.

Ward councillor Cherry Brooks said that two catering sites made a significant contribution to the local economy and operated in a socially and environmentally sensitive way, supporting, she claimed, between 28 and 44 local jobs.

She said there was no objection from Natural England and the changes were supported by the parish and the landowners, the Smedmore Estate.

She said that with the operation being dismantled at the end of the season for most of the year the site would remain undeveloped.

Said Cllr David Tooke: “At the end of the day this comes down to a matter of judgement… and those who live and work there think it is acceptable.”

Another councillor, Alex Brenton, who swims at Kimmeridge, said the Bay was “screaming out for a café, or something similar.”

She said many visitors came to the Bay, paying the toll road fee, and then ended up driving back into the village to get a coffee or meal, only to find more often than not that the village café/restaurant was full.

“A facility like this would be very, very useful…the benefits would outweigh the harm. For most of the year it won’t be there,” she said.

Although the committee approved the application its officers are being left to negotiate a number of conditions – including the definition of the site size; the details, including colouring, of the trailers and tent awning; the removal of some post and rope barriers at the end of the season; a waste management plan; no generators on the site; no music and remedial works to repair any damage to the grassed area.

The application says the business will function in the same way as a traditional restaurant with guests coming to a reception point to be seated.