Tempers boil over in fishing village tea hut row

A DEEP divide has emerged between residents in a historic fishing village set in a ravine over plans to build a beachfront takeaway which objectors claim will lead to over-commercialisation and a cliff being destabilised.

Proposals to site a timber tea hut on the Quarterdeck at Robin Hood’s Bay would blight one of the most picturesque spots on the Yorkshire coast, a meeting of the North York Moors National Park Authority’s planning committee has heard.

Among more than 40 objections to the scheme in the village – the site of a battle in 1779 between smugglers and excise men over 200 casks of brandy and gin – are that memorial benches to people who loved the spot will have to be moved.

The meeting heard the proposal would reinstate a tea hut which was removed in the mid1950s from the area of scrubland ranked by the park authority as among the most important areas to protect, to make way for the concrete sea defences.

The entrepreneur behind the scheme, Graham Kemp, the treasurer of Robin Hood’s Bay Tourism Association, said he “just wanted to put something back into the community”.

He said: “I live in the most prestigious and most photographed house in the whole of the East Coast overlooking the proposal. If I thought for one moment it would devalue my own residence I would not be stood before you today.”

Mr Kemp, whose plan received 10 letters of support, said the objectors were being led by “a closed Facebook group set up by local traders to gain maximum negativity”.

He said: “This isn’t the seaside eyesore opposers are suggesting. I will spend whatever it takes to make this do justice to Robin Hood’s Bay.”

Other residents of the village with 16 food outlets said the scheme would “damage the essence of the village” and discourage tourists from exploring its alleys.

Louise Shackleton, of the village’s Coffee Shack, said the Quarterdeck must be retained as a tranquil area to admire the unspoilt Jurassic coastline. She told members: “Visitors and residents have long treasured this area, some purchasing memorial benches as lasting tributes to loved ones.

“It is a place to sit and contemplate. Moving these would be highly disrespectful.

“The cliff is continuously moving, albeit less dramatically behind the Quarterdeck. This is probably due to the land drains which will be disturbed during construction. Building into the hillside will alter the cliff ’s stability.”