Council rejects permission for temporary accommodation site – but developer says officers already there will be unaffected

Officers policing the Olympic sailing events in Dorset should not worry that their temporary accommodation was refused planning permission on the eve of the Games, the development consultant responsible for the project has said.

A total of 140 portable cabins have been put in place to house 250 officers – but the site was refused retrospective planning permission by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council earlier this week.

Simon Chambers, a Director of planning consultants LPC – which are acting on behalf of developers Compass Point – said the officers will be gone and the site dismantled before the planning authorities can ultimately act.

Officers moved in to the site on July 23 and are due to be there for 20 days. The developers had to apply for retrospective planning permission for the three-by-six metre cabins.

Contrary to what planning documents said, Mr Chambers told PoliceOracle.com that the lack of permission had not seen work on the site stop.

He said the next step for the planning authorities, after refusing permission, would be to serve an enforcement notice ordering the cabins to be removed and the grassland they are on restored.

But the enforcement notice will not come into effect for 28 days after it is served, by which time the officers will be gone and the cabins taken down, Mr Chambers said.

John Coppen, the Fed Olympics Lead, said: “I wasn’t perturbed when I heard (about the permission issue). I only have a layman’s knowledge but I understand before (the authorities) get near the accommodation, we’ll have been and gone.”

Mr Coppen said “the vast majority” of the officers were happy with the accommodation and the developer had tried to make the cabins as comfortable as possible.

A spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “To have approved the application would have sent out the wrong message to other prospective developers and emphasises the importance of pre-consultation with the planning authority before development is undertaken.”