A Cornish parish council has strongly objected to a licensing application for a pop-up restaurant on a beach, saying it will make antisocial behaviour worse in an area that had a dispersal order this summer.
St Minver Highlands Parish Council also claims that customers of Baby Bay Beach Club have been spotted urinating on the beach on several occasions. The restaurant has just completed its second summer season, which included temporary events. Where alcohol sales were not authorised, the beach club operated on a "bring your own" basis.
Porthilly Spirit Distillery Ltd, which runs the restaurant on Baby Bay beach, near Polzeath, has defended its plans and says there is no evidence that its patrons have used the beach as a toilet.
The company intends to operate for lunch only between noon and 6pm, although it proposes that on no more than ten occasions a year this will run to 11pm when Baby Bay Beach Club holds long table feasts. It is described as the only off-grid wood-fired restaurant on the sand in north Cornwall.
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The licensing application will be discussed at Cornwall Council next week (Wednesday, September 9) after the authority received 12 representations against the proposal, including from St Minver Highlands Parish Council.
Many of the local residents who have written to the council cited a lack of public toilets in the immediate area, leading to people urinating and even defecating on the beach. They have also raised concerns about the possibility of excessive noise, additional rubbish and well-reported antisocial behaviour in the area getting worse if a licensed premises operates on the relatively secluded beach.
A neighbour said: "The PSPO (public spaces protection order) in force for Polzeath is directed at preventing alcohol-fuelled disorder. It would fly in the face of this to license the direct selling of alcohol on any part of Polzeath beach particularly into the evening."
St Minver Highlands Parish Council stated: "There are no toilet or main services in Baby Bay for any trader to use. The nearest public toilets are in Gulland Road, New Polzeath, approximately a 7/9-minute walk away at best via a steep, narrow path which is unlit, or the longer route which takes approximately 12 minutes. Unfortunately, this is why many of the attendees do not choose to take that journey and urinate on the beach.
"There have been many complaints to local councillors and the beach ranger. The sauna owner who operates in the same area, reports multiple people – including women – urinating behind/against their sauna and others have witnessed countless people urinating against the cliffs into the night. One of our councillors witnessed a man urinating on the beach whilst walking with his family."
The council added: "Unfortunately, Polzeath suffers from antisocial behaviour during the summer which is well documented. We have multiple agencies from Cornwall Council and the police working with the beach ranger service to overcome this problem, but we had a dispersal order in place this July.
"Another late-night bar, especially in this position, is highly problematical and adds to this burden. We believe this license and any more licensed premises in Polzeath will compound a problem the area is already fighting against. The police will struggle to oversee this part of Polzeath."
A thorough response to the representations has been made on behalf of the applicant, part of which says: "A recurring theme in a number of the representations is the description of Baby Bay Beach Club as a 'beach bar', or an assumption that the application would permit general alcohol sales until 10.30pm throughout the summer. That is not the application being made.
"Baby Bay Beach Club is a small, family-oriented, table-service restaurant. During normal operation the restaurant trades between noon and 6pm, with alcohol sales ceasing at 5.30pm. The application additionally provides for a maximum of ten evening long-table dining events in any calendar year, with no more than one such event in any week. Only on those limited occasions may the restaurant operate until 11pm, with alcohol sales ceasing at 10.30pm."
Its submission adds: "Baby Bay Beach Club has operated for approximately two seasons. During that period we have had no fights, alcohol-related disorder, ejections, police call-outs relating to customer behaviour, alcohol-related medical incidents, swimming incidents or comparable public-safety incidents arising from the operation of the restaurant.
"No responsible authority has submitted a representation against this premises licence application. We have engaged proactively with Devon and Cornwall Police. Officers visited prior to the application and have also visited during an evening feast, allowing them to understand both the location and nature of the operation and the controls we have in place."
The restaurant said: "We recognise that toilet provision and inappropriate urination are amongst the most frequently raised concerns. Public toilets are situated at the top of the coast path. We have now objectively timed this route. A member of staff walking continuously at an ordinary walking pace from the restaurant to the public toilets took 2 minutes 7 seconds.
"We also operate specific procedures intended to prevent inappropriate urination by our customers. At the beginning of every service, customers are told where the public toilets are and expressly instructed not to urinate in the bushes, on the beach or elsewhere around Baby Bay. They are advised that anyone caught doing so may be required to leave.
"During evening events we additionally position marshals towards the rear of the beach specifically to direct customers towards the toilets. We acknowledge that some of the representations state that they have witnessed people urinating around Baby Bay and we take those concerns seriously.
"Baby Bay is, however, a public-access beach used during the summer by substantial numbers of people wholly unconnected with the restaurant, including people bringing their own alcohol. The presence of inappropriate behaviour somewhere on or around the beach cannot therefore automatically establish that the individuals concerned were restaurant customers."
Beach Used as Toilet Prompts Licence Objection in Cornwall