Plans for third Wetherspoon pub in Weymouth

MOVES to bring a third Wetherspoon pub to Weymouth have taken a step forward with a new licensing application.

Moves to bring a third Wetherspoon pub to Weymouth have taken a step forward with a new licensing application.

The pub company is teaming up with Haven Holidays to bring a Wetherspoon pub to its Weymouth Bay site off Preston Road.

It will be using part of the main entertainment and food and drink building adjacent to the site’s main play area.

The change is part of a massive £20million expansion at the site, which could add 240 extra holiday homes, although it may yet have to be tweaked to meet objections from immediate neighbours.

The pub proposal has already seen a planning application to Dorset Council for advertising consent for five lit signs for the main building at the holiday site. The application shows the J D Wetherspoon logo on 2.7metres long signs across the frontage  – although it does not reveal what it might be called.

Haven already has nine parks across the country with Wetherspoon pubs where, over the course of a year, a million Wetherspoon pub meals have been sold.

Haven chief executive Simon Palethorpe, in an interview during the summer, said: “I would like to see us growing this concept further across our estate. I definitely think there is an opportunity for the majority of our parks to have a Wetherspoons.”

Haven’s Wetherspoons are run on a franchise basis, with the same menu found in any other Wetherspoons pubs.

The licensing application to Dorset Council shows that Haven Leisure Limited has applied to vary the premises licence for Weymouth Bay – Live Lounge & JD Wetherspoon, allowing internal alterations to the Oasis Bar & Grill to develop a JD Wetherspoon franchise.

The application seeks permission for the premises to open from 8am until 2.30am daily, and until 3.30am on bank holiday Sundays. Indoor film screenings would be permitted from 8am until 2am daily, extending to 3am on bank holiday Sundays. Opening and film screenings are currently permitted from 10am, so the proposed start would be two hours earlier.

Both schedules also provide for continuous opening and film screenings between the end of permitted hours on New Year’s Eve and the start of permitted hours on New Year’s Day. The details do not specify any changes to alcohol sales hours.

A consultation on the application ends on November 17th.