Restaurant ordered to rip down outdoor dining area after it's deemed 'harmful' to area

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Restaurant ordered to rip down outdoor dining area after it's deemed 'harmful' to area

Postby dutchman » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:37 pm

The award-winnng restaurant is just yards from Warwick Castle and had built the pergola so it could fit more customers in and comply with social distancing rules

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An award-winnng restaurant has been ordered to tear down a wooden pergola

The Dough and Brew restaurant, just yards from Warwick Castle, installed the structure to allow customers to eat outside during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But locals have blasted the "bodged pergola", saying it looks more like "fence panels" or a builders yard.

Warwick District Council ordered the 10ft-tall wooden structure- which boss John Martin said he had installed to allow the pizerria to cater for more customers while complying with social distancing rules - be removed as it breached planning laws.

Planning officers ruled at a council meeting last week that the pergola “harmed the look of the surrounding area”.

Warwick District Council’s development services manager Gary Fisher said: “The key issues here are very much around the impact the structure has on the character and appearance of the conservation area balanced with the benefits of the structure to the business in question particularly in the current circumstances.

“Officers feel that the benefits could be achieved by an alternative structure with an improved design and appearance which would be more acceptable in a conservation area.”

IT consultant Sue Taylor, 50, said: “I feel very sorry for restaurant and bar owners because they are struggling to survive at the moment but this just looks wrong.

“Considering the care which goes into their dishes, the pergola looks like a dozen planks were nailed together over a lunch hour.

“It looks more like a branch of Jewson than a nice restaurant.”

Restaurant boss Mr Martin said that the capacity inside the restaurant had halved since coronavirus restrictions were introduced.

He said: “The site is not located in an overly prominent part of the conservation area.

"Instead it is in a quiet corner of the town behind Marks and Spencer and Westgate House.

"We plan to complete the work to a high standard and are happy to work with officers to agree to landscaping features and materials.”

He now has a month to remove the pergola or face possible further action.

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