9:00am Wednesday 30th December 2009
By Arron Hendy
TRADERS are calling for the council to block the opening of a new restaurant and club in Weymouth.
The owner of a restaurant in Bridport is hoping to transform the Evolve shop opposite McDonald’s in St Mary Street into a three-floor business incorporating a family pirate-themed restaurant, a members club and an adults-only restaurant.
A council notice went up to reveal a premises licence had been applied for and the reference to the ‘adult only’ restaurant ‘with a private room’ sparked fears that a lapdancing club could be housed on one of the resort’s main shopping streets.
However, no adult entertainment has been proposed and the new owner is promising the new business will not have any lap dancing.
But Dennis Spurr, owner of The Fantastic Sausage Factory in St Mary Street, is appealing for the building to be kept as retail to encourage shoppers before the town centre dies out.
He said: “This town is struggling outside the summer season.
“We are busy now but we need more retail space and shops as this town is dying on its feet.
“It would be a disaster having a nightclub and nobody would be there during the day."
Mr Spurr fears a new drinking venue will add to the disturbances he witnesses if he gets to work at 4am.
“We’ve already got a bad enough reputation for the town being a no-go area at night,” he added.
Trish Johnson, owner of Monarch House Bed and Breakfast, hosted a meeting of residents and traders who oppose the new club.
She said her granddaughters were already afraid to go out at night and another late-night bar would make it worse.
Pat Silverton, 62, of East Street, echoed the call for the building – a former hotel – to remain a shop.
He said: “That’s a retail street and needs to remain so.
“Whatever the council gives permission to it’s got to stay as a shop and it’s big enough for the likes of Primark.”
But Robert Parkin, who already owns Taste in Bridport, said he would not have any strippers and his customers would not be the type to cause late night disturbances.
He said: “This could not be further from the truth.
“When it says ‘adults only’ it means no under-18s for the simple reason we don’t want pushchairs and children upstairs.
“The ground floor is going to be a family restaurant.”
Mr Parkin said the business would use local produce and Dorset beers and ciders and he hoped to employ 30 to 40 people..
He said his members-only basement will ensure a trouble-free, relaxing atmosphere.
Mr Parkin plans an adults- only restaurant and bar upstairs with a private room available for bookings.
He conceded that the notice on the premises for an ‘adults-only’ restaurant ‘could have been worded differently’ and said the business name Golden Casino Ltd did not mean it would house a casino.
Mr Parkin said he would not be attracting ‘the drinkers’ and though he had applied for a 4am licence in order to cater for bookings for functions the last orders for drinks on each floor would be before midnight.
He said he hoped to attract more shoppers to the area and wanted to help businesses in St Alban Street by bringing the bricked up windows on that side of the building back into use in the ground floor restaurant.
“We’ll have a nice area for people upstairs who want a quiet lunch with sofas there and in the basement where 24-hour news channels will be shown and newspapers available,” he added. “There will not be a single bit of lapdancing.”
The licence notice on the premises reads that letters for or against the application should be sent to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council by January 8, 2010. A council spokesman said any petitions handed in would only count as one piece of support or opposition.
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