Saga of cafe replacement a cliffhanger?

From the archive, first published Tuesday 6th Dec 2005.

A LONG-drawn-out saga over the replacement of a clifftop café at Highcliffe could have a cliffhanger ending.

That's the plan of Highcliffe Castle tea rooms boss Sean Kearney who has redrawn his Cliffhanger Café scheme for the site of the former fire-ravaged Crow's Nest on the edge of the car park at the end of Waterford Road.

Mr Kearney, who won planning permission in June for his previous proposal, says the new design drawn up by Christchurch architect Darren Crain will replace and upgrade the ageing clifftop conveniences as well providing a 76-seater restaurant.

He said: "The problem has always been that where the council wanted the café built the toilets were in the way."

"There was also concern about access to the restaurant because of the difference in ground levels."

"What I am proposing is to replace completely the current toilet block, which is in a very bad state of repair, keeping the new toilets separ-ate from the café, yet within the same overall building."

The scheme, currently on show in the tearooms at Highcliffe Castle, is expected to come before Christchurch council's planning control committee early in the new year.

If his latest plans are approved Mr Kearney says he will withdraw his previous proposals, but whatever the outcome he insists this is his last shot at providing a replacement for the Crow's Nest. "We will just have to wait and see what happens," he said.

The original clifftop café was destroyed by fire in 1990 and attempts to rebuild it were bogged down by legal wrangling, engineering concerns over the safety of the location and objections to the scale and location of proposed alternatives.

Last year a design competition was staged in a bid to break the deadlock and the winning entry, a futuristic oval glass-fronted design providing panoramic views over the Solent, later won planning consent.

But hopes of building either of the existing approved schemes or the revised Cliffhanger plans needs the council as landowner to decide its preferred operator.

First published: December 6, 2005

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