Plans lodged for new café next to popular Northumberland beach

The proposed site is less than 100 yards from the popular Beadnell beach.

Applicant Michael Dawson is seeking permission for a temporary unit made from shipping containers.

It would be located just off Bernicia Way and would provide indoor and limited outdoor terrace seating.

The site has previously been used in peak periods by a mobile food unit but the application notes it is ‘ostensibly vacant’.

Planning permission for a café with rooftop terrace on the wider site - itself a scaled down version of a £1 million earlier plan - was approved in November.

A planning report on Mr Dawson’s behalf states: ‘There have been two granted applications in this vicinity recently, both for restaurant use.

‘The applicant has had to reconsider the viability of the previous designs and which has resulted in amending the design to a single storey temporary building and making a new application for the revised scheme.

‘Michael Dawson, who runs the successful Craster Arms in the centre of the village, has identified this site as an opportunity for a high quality food offer close to the popular beach destination.’

The building, labelled ‘The Landing’ in drawings submitted by xsite architecture, would be constructed from four shipping containers formed into a rectangular floor plate.

It would have larch timber cladding to give it a ‘beach cabin appearance’ appropriate to the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The report explains: ‘The design proposal submitted responds directly to the client brief by providing a striking beach side eating venue that has contemporary appeal to the wide range of customers that might use the venue for lunchtime and end of day beach goers, early evening holiday maker refreshment and more formal dining customers from the village but also from further across this part of Northumberland drawn by the intended reputation making menu of the proprietor.

‘It is recognised that the marine environment will require the cladding to be regularly maintained to maintain good appearance.’

Ramped access would be provided to make the building and terrace accessible to all.

Parking would be provided at nearby car parks on Bernicia Way and at Northumberland County Council’s public beach car park.