There is hope a cafe on a refurbished Isle of Wight pier could soon reopen after its owners lodged plans to sell alcohol there.
The application comes months after a proposal to turn The Bay Cafe, on Totland Pier, into holiday lets was refused.
The cafe, which was part of the pier’s multi-million pound redevelopment, opened for a season in 2021, but has not served customers since, prompting questions about its future.
Application for new licence
Now, a licence application has been submitted by the cafe’s Surrey-based owners, The Wooldridge Partnership, to sell alcohol from 9am to 11pm.
If the licence is approved by the Isle of Wight council, the cafe could serve alcohol from 5th September, for consumption on and off its premises.
Opening times
The opening hours of the cafe are also revealed in the application, from 8.30am to midnight, all week.
Documents submitted to the council say the cafe would close within an hour once it has stopped selling alcohol, allowing customers to leave in an orderly manner without causing a nuisance to nearby residents.
What’s included
The alcohol licence would cover the inside of the restaurant and outside seating on the pier, stretching towards, but would not cover, the restaurant at the end.
The restaurant would therefore need a separate licence to sell alcohol.
To mitigate any proposed nuisance, the cafe has said it would install CCTV, give staff training, have a ‘Challenge 25 policy’ and put signs at the exits asking customers to be quiet when leaving.
View the application
You can view the application, 23/01235/LAPNEW, on the council’s licensing register.
The public consultation runs until 4th September.
Change of use refused
The proposals to remove the cafe and have holiday lets instead were not supported by the community, with Totland Parish Council objecting to the plans.
It said there had been a cafe at the site since the 1940s and was disappointed it could lose a community asset.
The Isle of Wight Council said the loss of the cafe would have a detrimental impact on the tourism provision in the bay, the vitality of a key seafront destination and the local community.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: © The Bay Cafe, Totland
