Pink revolution approved at Cobo

Thursday 03 August 2023

The kiosk at Cobo Bay will undergo a significant change after planners approved a recent planning application.

Mim's Kiosk can now expand its seating area and park a mobile food van outside the west coast kiosk.

Planners also agreed that the kiosk's service area can be extended and enclosed with fences. The public path running on the grass land can also be realigned.

The applicant, Mim Sarre, will need to submit details of the design of moveable planter boxes and disclose a landscaping scheme for the site as a condition of wider planning approval.

Planners also said the food van must remain parked in its designated position within the plans and only be used for food preparation and sale ancillary to the business in the building.

The plan's distinctive features include pink granite paving and gravel surfacing around the existing building.

The original application included a pergola and nearby plants, but these have been omitted after a deferral, with planning arguing that it would have encroached into public land and have “features alien to the immediate locality”.

Pictured: Cobo is one of the most popular beaches in the island.

The land to the north and east of the kiosk will need to be raised to carry out the works, with an earth bank and hedging proposed for the eastern boundary.

Outdoor Guernsey and the Constables of Castel submitted letters in support of the application, with the latter noting that the food van should be screened as much as possible.

La Societe Guernesiaise raised concerns with the “proposed loss of coastal grassland habitat to hard landscaping” and called for mitigations to ensure the changes don’t lead to a net biodiversity loss.

Planning said, while the planters were a limited offset “there is potential for the remainder of the planting proposed to balance against the impacts of the development.

“The proposed seating area, excavated to the level of the existing kiosk and enclosed with a bank and planting, is proportionate to the activities of the kiosk and would not have significant impacts on the landscape character, visual amenity or openness of the area.”