Beach bar speaks out about early closure due to 'rules and restrictions'

The Beach Hut Bar and Grill on West Cliff sands closed on Tuesday, claiming the business was no longer viable due to 'changing rules'.

Those behind the bar say they were aware of licensing restrictions such as customers needing to have a meal when they first opened but since then a number of other rules were implemented by the council.

READ MORE: Bournemouth beach bar closes weeks after opening

A spokesperson for the tender, health and safety, event management and operations team at Beach Hut Bar and Grill told the Daily Echo: “We constantly changed menu, changed operations, got more staff in so that we could do a different way of running back and forth.

“We invested in the IT equipment. They asked us to do so people could order at their tables, we basically just did everything they asked us to do.

“I've worked with the company for six years now and we've operated in city centres like Birmingham and Liverpool, just about everywhere really. And we've never, ever come against this kind of stipulation.

All of the new beach restaurant sites have the same licence, granted in consultation with Dorset Police and local residents.
The company should not have bid for the tender if they weren’t happy with the licensing conditions.
Have a lovely day.

— Cllr Beverley Dunlop 💜🤍💚🏖🇬🇧🇺🇦 (@CllrDunlop) June 16, 2022

“People got frustrated with the rules and then they get aggressive with our stuff who go home in tears or quit a lot, just because of the way that people were getting frustrated with the how we had to operate.

“We were getting so much backlash, so we appealed one more time. And they told us that they couldn't give us a definitive answer until yesterday, Tuesday when the police would come down.

“It was not a great experience and we will probably never come back.”

The company says they invested more than £50,000-£60,000 in the Beach Hut and they are currently ‘at a massive loss.’

They said they received a bill yesterday, asking for payment for the use of the space and the privilege of being there.

Their spokesperson added: “We don't necessarily want any bad blood. We just had to make a financial business decision, which was, we're gonna lose money here, we need to cut our losses before we all die of a heart attack and strain and stress. It was difficult for us to do.”

READ MORE: Bournemouth beach bar closure: what BCP Council is saying

However, the operators of other bars on the beachfront say they have had different experiences.

Matthew Piovan, operations director of Aruba, West Beach, W Beach and the Sunset Beach Club said: “We’ve had 22 years now across the two businesses with West Beach and Aruba and the last couple of years with all these additional pop ups, have really helped us recover from COVID.

“It's great, we've got 22 years of working very closely with the seafront team at BCP Council and I think that relationship has really helped us to grow W Beach and allowed tenders to come for the Sunset Beach Club, El Marino and unfortunately the now closed Beach Hut.

“I do think BCP Council have been working very well with us in tandem to sort of push more facilities on the beach because there's clearly a demand for the facilities on the beach.

“We do have the same restrictions as the Beach Hut had in terms of our guests must dine but we operate restaurants and we understand the restaurant nature of it.”

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for BCP Council said: “It is unfortunate the operators of the Beach Hut Bar & Grill have made the decision to cease trading.

"We were working with the operator to encourage them to remain on site, however we wish them all the best in wherever they should choose to do business in the future."