Museum’s boathouse plan gets the go ahead at second time of asking

Torridge planners have given the green light to a new boathouse building at the North Devon Maritime Museum in Appledore after refusing it last year.

The building will house a refurbished fully masted fishing boat called a Clovelly picarooner, which is currently in a shipping container in the museum car park in Odun Road.

It will also have archive rooms, a servery and an accessible lavatory.

The applicants said the current archive storage rooms on the third floor of the museum suffered from damp and modern purpose-built facilities were needed where more exhibits could be displayed and stored in a controlled environment.

Museum trustees plan to demolish the existing interpretation centre and other buildings and take in some of the car park for the new work and exhibition space.

They intend for it to improve the visitor experience and showcase Appledore’s maritime and boatbuilding heritage, on the back of Bideford and the River Torridge recently being designed as a ‘Heritage Harbour’.

Torridge District Council’s planning committee previously turned the scheme down, saying it was ‘overbearing’ and the materials were inappropriate. There was also concern over a loss of parking spaces.

New plans include a traditional slate roof instead of metal, and there will be a ‘hipped’ roof facing Odun Road, which has a number of listed buildings.

Thirty five of the 40 car parking spaces are being retained.

Above: North Devon Maritime Museum in Appledore. Credit: TDC

Members were told that being the owner of the car park, the museum is under no obligation to provide public car parking.

Torridge District Council’s lease on the car park has expired.

Appledore wanted to be on an ‘equal footing’ with places such as Topsham, which has several boats on display in its museum, the committee was told.

Councillor Chris Leather said the museum had addressed the concerns and there had been no objections from the council’s conservation officer or Historic England.

Planning officers recommended the plans for approval, saying that whilst the building would change the appearance of the area it was not considered so detrimental to warrant refusal.

“I think it has public benefit,” said Cllr Leather.

“If we want to enhance the lifestyle for people in Appledore, then this is the sort of thing we should allow.

“It will encourage people to the area and be good for the locals too. It looks a lot better than the previous application. It will take a bit of parking space but there is still plenty.”

Thirteen people and Northam Town Council opposed the scheme, with concerns about the effect on heritage buildings, loss of parking and public views plus possible noise from boat repairs.

The application was approved by eight votes to one.