Leamington restaurant ordered to comply with planning rules

[dutchman]

Owners of a Leamington restaurant have three months to remove part of their shop frontage after altering a Grade II-listed building without planning consent.



Planning officers last week asked Warwick District Council’s planning committee to authorise enforcement action against the owners of La Coppola, an Italian Restaurant in Regent Street.

The restaurant is in a Grade II-listed three storey building, part of a Grade II-listed terrace in Leamington town centre’s conservation area

It was brought to the attention of the planning enforcement section this summer that a shop front surround including a sign had been installed on the front of the property without consent.

Despite repeated correspondence regarding this issue and personal visits to the property, no response was received from the owners.

Planning committee members agreed this was unacceptable and voted for enforcement action to be taken.

Cllr Roger Copping (Lib Dem, Leamington Manor) said: “This applicant has a history of being non-compliant with planning regulations.

“We have standards that need to be respected and to cover such a beautiful building like this is not acceptable. Even though times are tough on small businesses and we must support them, I am absolutely against what this business has done to the building.”

Cllr George Illingworth, chairman of the planning committee, said: “If the whole of Regent Street looked like this then it wouldn’t be Leamington anymore.

“This shop front must be removed within three months.”