Plans for cafe at Sammy Miller Museum given green light

The proposal, for the Sammy Miller Museum in New Milton, will see a single-storey café built in place of a craft shed and disused play area.

The popular museum was opened in 1980 by Sammy Miller after his successful motorcycle racing career.

He later turned to restoring bikes.

However, the current café at the museum has a ‘lack of capacity’ to meet the demands of visitors, with more than 21,000 people visiting in 2022.

The museum now wants to build a café that would expand capacity to around 100 covers, to deal with visitors each day, as well as events.

In a proposal submitted to New Forest District Council, the applicant said: “The proposal for a new café building at the popular and award-winning Sammy Miller Museum has arisen due to the lack of capacity within the existing café.

“The combination of events and peak levels of visitors reaching 200 persons regularly, places severe strain on the inadequate café facilities. Local employment opportunities will also be created as a positive effect of this project.

“The intention is to create a café that serves 100 covers as an ancillary amenity to the main museum and craft shops in a separate building located to the southwest corner of the museum grounds.”

The decision for the plans was delegated to a planning officer.

The officer found that despite some impact on the green belt land that the museum sits on, this would be outweighed by the positive impact of the proposal.

“The proposal would provide improved food and drink facilities that would support an important and unique tourist attraction which brings visitors and associated economic benefits to the local area,” the officer’s report said.

“Given the defined scope of the proposal and the benefits associated with the use, it is considered that the impact on the Green Belt and the wider countryside would be acceptable in this case. As such, the application is recommended for conditional approval.”

The plans were approved, subject to conditions.