A SEAFRONT diner is to be expanded for next summer despite objections to the “ugly” design and “Ibiza” feel.
Extra restaurant floor space, seating and decking will be created at the Prom Diner restaurant, to the west of Boscombe Pier, next year.
The applicant, BCP Council, said it hopes to bring an “Ibiza feel” to the beachfront in the summer months and bring in more tourists.
However, at a planning committee meeting for the proposals held last week, councillors raised objections to the proposed new set-up.
Objecting, Cllr Stephen Bartlett described the shipping container which would be placed as part of the restaurant as “ugly” and that it "doesn't add to the character and appearance of the area”.
“This application seeks to commercially exploit this space and create non-entitled spaces in public spaces so I am totally opposed to this,” he said.
“This is Bournemouth, not Ibiza.”
Read more: Boscombe's Beach Diner could get new 'Ibiza-style' expansion
Cllr Gillian Martin added: “I’m concerned about the integrity of the beachfront and losing that. Where do we stop? We do need some sort of policy moving forward on this.
“The shipping container is going to be really ugly, it will look really bad and my concern would be that if we allow this, other people are going to do the same thing with shipping containers.
“We’ll end up with 50 miles of shipping containers on our golden beaches.”
Concerns were also raised over the loss of beach that would come with the expansion of the restaurant.
Cllr Kate Salmon said: “Where do we stop? If we say yes to some of them (pop-up bars), why would we say no to any of them?
"Before we know it, do we end up closing off the whole beach and making it not available for public use?”
However, others were in favour, including Cllr Sharon Carr-Brown who said: “Ultimately, the beach is a commercial operation.
“It is obviously a public amenity and is a natural space, but it’s not a natural beach it’s created to be a tourist attraction.
“This forms a small part of potential offer to those tourists.”
Cllr Jo Clements added: “In terms of tourism, we absolutely need facilities like these. We need to be offering it as a service to our tourists, visitors and local residents.
“Personally, I’d like to see more of these popping up along the beach at various intervals but in terms of tourism, our towns desperately need a boost.”
Cllr Michael Tarling added: “We as a tourist destination really need to up our offer and I’m not suggesting it’s an Ibiza-style rave thing.
“I wouldn't want to see drum and bass music blasting out on the beach.”
The application was passed through the vote.
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