Burgh Island Hotel 'pool house' petition launched

The bridge-like design of the 'pool house' will stretch across Mermaid Pool to a sea stack

A "bridge-like" luxury hotel outbuilding would "desecrate" an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB), protesters say.

Two thousand people have signed a petition against plans for the pool house on Burgh Island in Devon.

The Burgh Island Hotel has been granted conditional permission for the by South Hams District Council.

Hotel bosses said the "innovative and exciting design" would have a positive effect on local tourism.

More on the Burgh Island plans and other Devon and Cornwall news

The design is the result of an architecture competition

Burgh Island was often visited by author Agatha Christie

Objectors, who expressed their concerns to council planning officials, described the plan as a "threat" to the island.

Tony and Beatrice Porter said they were "aghast" and that the new structure would be viewed as a "carbuncle".

Adrian Bull, who is also against the development, called it "controversial and inappropriate" and said it would "desecrate the scenery and the landscape".

Another local resident, Stuart Watts, described it as a "visually unattractive blockhouse on a highly exposed part of the coastline".

Tony Orchard from the Burgh Island Hotel said: "I felt that the positives, the innovative and exciting design, and the good effects that will have on tourism, outweighed any negatives that would have on the ANOB".

The South West Design Review Panel said it could be "internationally celebrated".