THE long-running saga of a Swanage seafront bar could take yet another twist in the New Year.

Popular Gee Whites, on the quayside, was served a planning enforcement notice earlier this year – ordering owner Mick Storer to tear down the thatched pagoda over the alfresco seating area.

Mr Storer, who has already appealed against the enforcement notice, told the Daily Echo he is now ready to lodge a revised plan with Purbeck District Council in the next few days.

“One way or another I want an end to all this,” he said.

“We’ve been talking with council planners over the past few months and if this latest plan isn’t in keeping with what they want, then I don’t know what reasonably can be.

“But you never really know which way it will go.”

Planning officers served the latest enforcement notice in October.

The action came months after the district council’s planning board ruled against revised plans for a glass and steel canopy at the site, despite more than 700 letters of support for the application.

An officer’s report concluded those particular plans ‘failed to preserve or enhance the character and appearance of this prominent site within the Swanage Conservation Area’.

Mr Storer believes his latest scheme – once again for a glass canopy – will meet everyone’s approval.

He said: “This new scheme will be lodged and will probably go before the planning board committee next February.

“This is a great business opportunity. I just want to be able to finally get on with things.”

The Gee Whites saga stretches back to 2007, when the thatched pagoda was first erected over the seating area.

Following complaints, district planners ordered Mr Storer to remove it or submit the appropriate planning application.

He obliged but in February 2009 the application was refused.

Rather than ordering Mr Storer to tear down the pagoda, council officers agreed to let it remain until the second plan was submitted – but this was also turned down in March this year.