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FOR LYME REGIS, UPLYME, CHARMOUTH & THE AXE VALLEY ● FORTNIGHTLY ● OCTOBER 28 2022
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Proposal to scrap precept dismissed A PROPOSAL to scrap the town council tax precept in Lyme Regis, to help residents with the rising cost of living, has been thrown out for the second year running. Cllr Richard Doney suggested scrapping the precept for the 2023/24 financial year, but his proposal was met with concerns that it would then be difficult to reintroduce the following year and may come as a “shock” to residents. REPORT, PAGE 6
Support for Uplyme’s affordable housing
A PROPOSAL for six new affordable homes to rent in Uplyme was met with near unanimous support at a public meeting last week. The meeting considered a proposal from Lyme Regis Community Land Trust to build the new houses on land near Venlake Cross REPORT, PAGE 6 and Cannington Lane.
Artisan Florist
SAVE DADDY’S DECK! Mark Hix pictured with daughter Isla (right) and a friend on the decking outside his Oyster & Fish House restaurant in Lister Gardens – the future of which is in jeopardy amid contradictory recommendations from the town council
Hix: a no from planners could kill my restaurant
Wild and Seasonal
Popular self-serve flower shed at 18 Woodmead Road, Lyme Regis DT7 3AD Or order online for daily deliveries
Teresa Fowler
35 years experience
Tel: 01297 444743 07721 628 754
CONFUSED COUNCIL DECISION ON DECKING COULD SEE LOCAL JOBS LOST LYME Regis chef Mark Hix may be forced to close his restaurant if planners make him dismantle an outside deck extension erected during the COVID crisis.
Mr Hix took advantage of a government dictate that waived planning rules to allow the hospitality trade to extend their outside premises during the pandemic. Mr Hix, one of the most respected chefs and food writers in the country, extended his Oys-
PHILIP EVANS
philip@lyme-online.co.uk
ter and Fish House premises to provide about 30 additional covers at a cost of £20,000, employing an additional five members of staff. The government relaxing of planning rules came to an end in September and Mr Hix has been negotiating a fee to retain the deck on town council land in Lister Gardens as a permanent feature. Their initial response was to
say they were “amenable” to the proposal providing a satisfactory fee was agreed. The matter then went before the town council’s Planning Committee, attended by just four councillors. With opposition coming from Dorset councillor Belinda Bawden and the Lyme Regis Society, committee members objected because they considered the deck represented an ingress into a public amenity space that should be kept free of commercial CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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