Government overturns decision on Scarborough café's seafront decking
A Scarborough seafront café has won a planning appeal over a controversial decking area that North Yorkshire Council said should not have been approved because of harm to the area.
The retrospective scheme outside The Rooftop Cocktail Bar at 1 Pier Terrace, overlooking South Bay, was refused by the council earlier this year after planners and highway officers argued it harmed the character of the conservation area and encroached onto a public thoroughfare.
But a Government planning inspector overturned that decision last month, ruling that the council had failed to show the development caused sufficient harm.
In a decision allowing the appeal, Insp Chris Watson-Pipe said the decking’s “materials and use are not inherently out of keeping” with the surrounding area and that it sat comfortably within a part of town dominated by tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses.
She said: “In the context of the surrounding commercial uses and the established presence of outdoor seating associated with hospitality premises, I do not consider that its form or appearance is incongruous.”
The inspector found the structure preserved both the surrounding area and the Scarborough conservation area, directly contradicting North Yorkshire Council’s conclusion that it caused “significant visual harm”.
The ruling, in favour of Mr and Mrs Austin, also dismissed concerns raised by the council’s own highways authority, which warned the decking occupied adopted highway land, interfered with established rights of passage and could create an unwanted precedent for similar developments.
Following a site visit, the inspector said the decking would not significantly alter access arrangements or remove any formal parking provision.
She concluded: “On the evidence before me, I find insufficient justification to dismiss the appeal on highway safety grounds.”
The dispute centred on a decking and seating area built outside the popular rooftop café on Pier Terrace.
Planning officers said the structure had effectively absorbed part of a public route connecting Quay Street and Burr Bank into a private business.
A delegated report recommending refusal said the proposal “would enclose an area of a public thoroughfare” and “narrow the public highway”, causing harm to pedestrians and the wider character of the area.
Planning officers also rejected claims in the applicant’s heritage statement that the scheme provided public benefits by improving hospitality provision and creating new viewpoints across the harbour.
Those benefits were described by the council as “very private benefits individual to the operator”.
But the inspector took a different view, finding the addition was compatible with the area’s long-established leisure and tourism function.
The appeal site lies within Scarborough’s historic conservation area near the harbour, the Toll Bar and Scarborough Castle.
While granting permission, the inspector imposed a condition requiring the timber balustrade surrounding the decking to be painted the same colour as the existing building within six months.
Although the planning appeal has been won, the inspector noted that North Yorkshire Council owns the land in question and stressed the ruling relates only to planning merits.
She wrote: “My conclusion relates solely to the planning merits of the proposal and does not determine whether separate authorisation is required from owners of the land or under highway legislation.”