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

The operation, using trailers for food and drinks, had previously been limited to around a month in the summer until last year when it was allowed to operate from May until the end of September.

Now Dorset Council has agreed that a two year limit on that permission can be extended to 2029 and the start date pushed back to April 1st rather than May. A proposal to extend the hours from the existing 10am until 6pm to 8pm had been discussed but dropped from the application.

The business is an off-shoot of Clavell’s Restaurant in the village. Agents for the business say the pop-up facility has created 16 local jobs during its first full season in 2023 and resulted in £136,000 of expenditure on food and beverages from local suppliers.

Kimmeridge Parish Council and several neighbours had written to Dorset Council to support the changes.

The new conditions will still mean that all the structures have to be removed from the site, including the post and rope barriers, at the end of each September to allow the site to recover from the summer use with remedial works carried out, if necessary.

The use will be limited to no more than four trailers and one toilet, all clad in wood, with no generators to be used and no music.

When the longer use was first discussed, in 2022, planning officers had recommended turning the application down arguing that it would cause ‘harm’ to the landscape if made more permanent.

Councillors heard at the time 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 and 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 – but would help the local economy, a view which has been supported in several letters backing the latest changes, including one from a B&B operators in the area who says his clients appreciate the facilities at the Bay, giving the area more of ‘a buzz.’

Pics – The Kimmeridge Bay site as it is today – looking inland The catering area as it is today with Clavell’s Tower, which dates from 1830, in the background