There is hope a café on a refurbished Isle of Wight pier could soon reopen after its owners lodged plans to sell alcohol there.
The application comes months after a proposal to turn The Bay Café, on Totland Pier, into holiday lets was refused.
The café, which was part of the pier’s multi-million-pound redevelopment, opened for a season in 2021 but has not served customers since, prompting questions about its future.
Now, a licence application has been submitted by the cafe’s Surrey-based owners, The Wooldridge Partnership, to sell alcohol from 09:00 to 23:00.
If the licence is approved by the Isle of Wight Council, the café could serve alcohol from September 5, for consumption on and off its premises. The opening hours of the café are also revealed in the application, from 08:30 – 00:00, all week.
Documents submitted to the council say the café would close within an hour once it has stopped selling alcohol, allowing customers to leave in an orderly manner without causing a nuisance to nearby residents.
The alcohol licence would cover the inside of the restaurant and outside seating on the pier, stretching towards, but would not cover, the restaurant at the end. The restaurant would therefore need a separate licence to sell alcohol. To mitigate any proposed nuisance, the café has said it would install CCTV, give staff training, have a ‘Challenge 25 policy’ and put signs at the exits asking customers to be quiet when leaving.
You can view the application, 23/01235/LAPNEW, on the council’s licensing register. Comments can be submitted until 4th September.
The proposals to remove the café and have holiday lets instead were not supported by the community, with Totland Parish Council objecting to the plans.
It said there had been a café at the site since the 1940s and was disappointed it could lose a community asset.
The Isle of Wight Council said the loss of the café would have a detrimental impact on the tourism provision in the bay, the vitality of a key seafront destination and the local community.
Won’t work, how can it compete with the Waterfront, whole thing was a bad idea from the start, building to me looks horrible, would’ve been best to keep it as a small cafe and have the pier open to the public all year round.
I preferred the Old Totland Pier.
Use to get nice Cod and Chips and good old fashioned desserts
Like Lemon Sponge and Custard etc
These new tarty farty places just OVERCHARGE people.
I remember when the HUT at COLWELL was just an old fashioned cafe shed selling
good old fashion basic food.
NOW YOU HAVE TO TAKE OUT A MORTGAGE TO GO TO THE HUT!
I have great memories of school dinners, especially at Bishop Lovett Middle School, led by Mrs Skinner. Chocolate sponge with hot chocolate custard. Lemon sponge with custard. Victoria Sponge with jam on the top and with custard.
In ’74, I had an issue with my weight; I was very skinny. Mrs Skinner would always give me seconds, much to the annoyance of other pupils.
The best nosh was at my cousin’s Fish & Chip restaurants, Tony’s. Did you know the chips were peeled and cut from scratch? None of those frozen pre-cut potatoes which are used by many chippies nowadays.
Why on Earth would you even want to go to the Hut? Terrible over-priced food and drink, and full of prats showing off by flashing the cash and shouting a lot. “Ooh, Look at me in the Hut wasting my money.” All with their collars turned up looking ridiculous. If they don’t know how to position a collar, buy a shirt without a collar because the turned up position is a clear indicator of a brain-dead prat.
Yes we loved the old Hut and old Totland Cafe. Shame for us normal people.
Never mind the alcohol, they need to sell good food at a decent price or they will never get any customers.
Probably not essential, as the Hut is always full….
Sounds like it will be a bar rather than a cafe. I would prefer it to provide simple reasonably priced food and ice creams like the Captain’s Cabin. Something families with young children could afford.
Like it used to up to 3 years ago.