Spittal fun centre owners told to remove giant slide

The Family Fun Centre, at the Venetian pavilion on Spittal promenade, has been served with a planning enforcement notice.

The council claims the installation of an amusement slide measuring more than five metres in height is a breach of planning control.

It had requested the removal of the slide in its entirety from the land within 60 days, which has now lapsed.

Planning enforcement officer Liz O’Brien, in a letter to local residents and other interested parties informing them of the matter, states: ‘It appears to the council that the breach of planning control has occurred within the last four years.

‘The council considers it expedient to issue this notice as the unauthorised development detracts from the character and appearance of the land within the conservation area of Spittal and the surrounding landscape.’

However, landowners Joe and Vivien Ratcliffe have challenged the notice through the appeals process.

Their grounds of appeal against the notice are that: ‘The steps requiéred by the notice to be taken, or the activities required by the notice to cease, exceed what is necessary to remedy any breach of planning control’.

Representations must be made in writing by May 16.