Plan for mobile saunas on beach rejected

A proposal for three new sauna pods at Blackpool Sands have been rejected

A plan to put mobile saunas on a Devon beach has been rejected.

South Hams District Council's Development Control Committee heard it would be a "dereliction of duty" to allow the saunas at Blackpool Sands.

Sea Kayak Devon and the Blackpool Start Partnership already have one sauna on the sands and had applied to replace it with three new pods - which would have been visible from the road and coast path.

Planning officers believed the benefits of the saunas would not outweigh the harm done to the landscape, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. The committee voted by a majority to refuse the proposal.

Councillor Guy Pannell said the saunas would be a "semi-permanent intrusion" on the beach if approved.

"It is a dereliction of duty to the landscape if we allow them to be placed there," he said.

Councillor Simon Rake spoke in favour of the application, saying the saunas would sit "very well in that hybrid role that Blackpool Sands plays".

He said: "Blackpool Sands is quite rare in that it marries the best of a natural beach with an amenity beach."