Plans to complete Bateman’s Café – unfinished for over six years – have been approved by planners under delegated powers.

Café owner Lisa Brown’s proposal will see the building raised 500mm on a new concrete foundation, placing it above expected 1-in-30 year flood levels.

The building was designed to float in the event of a flood, but a storm surge that indundated the promenade area in 2020 left it unstable.

Building work then halted on the two-storey building and, according to a statement submitted with the planning application, there followed a breakdown in relations between the client, designers and builder.

The plans propose changing the building’s cladding from timber to a composite material, a move described by Essex County Council’s heritage officers – commenting because of the proximity of the Grade II listed Bateman’s Tower – as of “poor quality”.

Though stating that the overall effect would not “negatively change the way in which the heritage asset is experienced”, they added “…the retention of timber cladding and a lighter colour palette would be favourable and more in keeping with local character and distinctiveness…”.