We live in a picturesque UK seaside town with strict rules – the council bans ‘everything’…it’s like going back in time
RESIDENTS living in a picturesque seaside town say their council has ‘banned’ everything.
There are no ice-cream sellers along the beach at Frinton-on-Sea in Essex because the council won’t allow them.
The first fish and chip shop was allowed to open in 1992 when Frinton and Walton Town Council finally buckled to the winds of change.
When the Lock and Barrell opened in 2000 it was the sea-side town’s first ever pub.
The Covid pandemic led the council to allow a second chippy. Pier One Fish and Chips was allowed to open a takeaway to complement their restaurant.
Pier One’s owner Maxine Collins, 52 , said the council was famously strict about which businesses could open up in the town.
She said to Essex Live: “The council freaked out about Sainsbury’s because it’s got an orange sign. Sainsbury’s couldn’t come here until they changed their sign.”
Planning documents from 2014 show Frinton Town Council’s level of control over the building.
One condition says: “No development shall be commenced until samples of the roof tiles and bricks (…) have been submitted to and agreed, in writing, by the Local Planning Authority.”
Maxine said people who return to the town after visiting it 30 or 40 years before as children and find it just the same. “Obviously there are different shops, but the high street hasn’t changed dramatically.
“The green’s the same, the beach is exactly the same, the beach huts are the same,” she said.
She said that the council’s policy had made the town popular with a younger generation of visitors too who come from London for the day.
She said: “Certainly, when you walk around the town it’s impossible not to notice this – on a warm and sunny day, there are always several groups of people in their late teens and early twenties chatting and relaxing on the green or browsing the shops on the high street.”
Jon Howell, 53, who runs the MIND charity shop on the high street, said the town’s refusal to change with the times was part of its appeal.
He said: “The town is still quite old-fashioned, and I think a lot of effort has gone into keeping it that way.”
“The council are very keen not to change it, which is part of the appeal,” John says, “that’s why most people come here. I think the residents are quite keen to keep it that way too.
“They’re quite keen to keep things how it was when they grew up.”
In response to the claims made in this article, Councillor Paul Clifton said: “The planning authorities, Tendring District Council and Essex County Council, invite the Town Council to ‘comment’ on planning applications submitted to them.
“Frinton & Walton Town Council is a ‘statutory consultee’ for planning applications submitted to the local planning authorities, not the authority making the decision.
The Town Council try to ensure that we maintain and keep the characteristics of the town.”