Shop with Permission for Seafront Store has to Open in the Marina

Summary

---

Historic covenants have forced an Exmouth business with planning consent for a seafront building to open in the marina instead.Waterfront Sports secured planning permission for a building on the seafront in August 2007 but has this weekend opened at the Pierhead in Exmouth Marina.The owners of the store said they had to take the opportunity when it arose as they have had no business premises for two-and-a-half years.The covenants were put in place by the former Lord Clinton in 1920, designed to guard against the overdevelopment of the seafront. The land is still owned by Clinton Devon Estates. East Devon District Council is negotiating the lifting of covenants.Peter Manfield, 55, owns the shop with business partner Mark Briggs, 38, and both say they could not have waited longer to start trading again.But Mr Manfield said while the Marina was a good place to be, the ideal location for the business was on the seafront, where they were set to lease premises.He said: "We hope the hold-up over the lifting of the covenant will be sorted soon as we have had permission for our new building since August 2007."We are hoping in the near future to be in a situation where we can move to the new building as that is where we want to be."We were operating on the seafront since 1985 but the lease ran out so I hope the council and Clinton Devon Estates can agree terms soon as we would like to be back there."Mr Briggs said: "I think we will have a good season as places like Devon Cliffs Holiday Park are busy. But we needed to get back out there before we lost our clientele. You can't continue if you don't have anywhere to trade from."A spokeswoman for the council said: "Members considered a joint report by the principal estates surveyor and Karime Hassan, corporate director, which gave them an update on council progress in lifting all historic restrictive covenants affecting its land at Exmouth seafront."Members considered three possible options detailed in the report. It was resolved that no further action be taken at this time."The report was discussed in a confidential part of an executive board meeting where the press and public are excluded.Waterfront sports can be found at Exmouth Marina, where it will have its official opening on May 2.HISTORIC covenants have forced an Exmouth business with planning consent for a seafront building to open in the marina instead.

Waterfront Sports secured planning permission for a building on the seafront in August 2007 but has this weekend opened at the Pierhead in Exmouth Marina.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Shop with Permission for Seafront Store has to Open in the Marina

The owners of the store said they had to take the opportunity when it arose as they have had no busines...

See the full content of this document

---