Permission for more stalls on Gorleston clifftop car park

Barista Buoy, a converted Tuk Tuk selling coffee, was awarded a temporary pitch by Great Yarmouth Borough Council (GYBC) last year, and became a popular fixture - but that permission has now expired.

The application to expand the number of stalls on the site was lodged by the council to its own planning department.

Almost 200 letters of support and some 14 letters of objection about the plan had been sent in by residents ahead of a meeting of GYBC’s development control committee on Wednesday evening, where a majority of councillors voted to approve the scheme.

Planning officers expressed some concern about the stalls’ proposed location in a conservation area, but said this would be outweighed by their benefits in terms of attracting visitors.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council's development control committee voted by majority to grant permission for the scheme at a meeting on Wednesday evening. (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)

They recommended the stalls be limited to operating for only 190 days each year, which councillors agreed, along with a condition that those days fall between March and October.

The three stalls will together occupy six parking spaces.

Labour councillor Bernard Williamson expressed concern about a height limit of three metres for the stalls, saying it would allow them to be higher than a standard caravan and potentially “impinge upon the conservation area” - but a planning officer said it was still his department’s view that the limit was appropriate.

Speaking against the proposal, one resident told the meeting: “I’m not sure whether I should be sad or mad as I stand here, but mostly I think I am sad that we are debating whether we leave our beautiful cliffs as they are, or whether we throw that to the wind.”

She said she feared new outlets would cause more littering, noise and smells, among other impacts, and that it was “not possible to vocalise the amount of damage that will be caused” by the stalls within the three minutes she was allotted to speak.

But 193 letters of support mentioned the success of the Barista Buoy stall, saying it had been an asset and a lifeline for people with limited mobility, as well as praising the "polite and courteous" owner who is "always smiling."

Mark Sutton (Buttons) is owner of Barista Buoy which is pitched on Gorleston seafront at the far end car park along Marine Parade. (Image: Karla George)

The three stalls will be in addition to an ice cream van which has visited the site for several years.