REGENERATION at a gateway site is set to take another step forward.
Plans for a new shop at Castletown on Portland have been welcomed by residents and local businesses as a ‘much-needed resource’ which would have ‘multiple benefits’ for the area.

The issue is set to be discussed at a meeting of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s licensing sub-committee today, because the premises, New Castletown Stores, has applied for a licence to sell alcohol.

Regeneration plans for Castletown were unveiled in 2015 and are well underway. A D-Day museum was opened earlier this year. The community had been in decline since the Royal Navy left Portland.

Nine letters have been received by the committee in support of the application, several of which state that being able to sell alcohol would make the shop commercially viable.

One resident, who lives nearby, has objected.

In the application, director of the company Sukhbant Singh Siddhu, said the premises, which sits below flats, is currently empty but will be turned into a convenience store. He has applied for permission to sell alcohol seven days a week, between 6am and 10.30pm.

One resident has objected to the plans, citing concerns that alcohol could be bought at the store and consumed in the street late at night. In a response to the objection, Mr Siddhu said the store will be closed more than three hours before two nearby pubs. He also stated he would serve alcohol responsibly, ensuring anyone underage is not served, and that the store will provide employment opportunities in the area.

But a local businessman wrote of his support of the plans, outlining the progress of regeneration over the last three years, including 10 jobs being created by the Crabber’s Wharf development, the D-Day museum, which has 12 full- and part-time workers and a planned Scuba Diving Shop and training school, which is expected to open soon. There are proposals to refurbish an old Naval Block and create 350 apartments and Portland Port is continuing to expand, with more than 40,000 visitors from cruise ships alone expected next year.

The businessman said: “There is an increasing need to provide essential food supplies and provisions to satisfy current and future demand.”

In another letter, an employee who works in Castletown said: “If a convenience store is unable to sell alcohol, I feel this would be prohibitive to its success and financial viability […] There are multiple benefits to the immediate local area, its residents, regeneration and the economic growth of Portland.”

The sub-committee will discuss the application at a meeting at the WPBC offices in Commercial Road today.