AN application for temporary stables at a Portland riding school has been given a three year permission.

Some councillors have urged the owner, Portland town councillor Sue Lees, to get on with the job of building the permanent facility she was given planning permission for in August 2015.

Weymouth and Portland planning committee members agreed on Wednesday to allow the temporary permission for a paddock off Sweethill Road which already has timber stables and horse jumps on site. It lies within an Area of Local Landscape Importance and a Heritage Coast Area.

Portland borough councillor Paul Kimber said he wanted to see the area tidied up and urged the owner to get on with the job – but a move by him to limit the temporary permission to two years was rejected by the committee.

The business asked for temporary permission for four stables to help with a phased move from its old site at Watery Lane off Weston Street, Portland.

Planning officers say the business will eventually move to a new site immediately to the west of where the existing temporary stables are and where it has planning permission for 52 stables with an office, staffroom, feed rooms, livery room and tack rooms in a courtyard layout around a central area, as well as a house on the new site.

There has been around thirty letters, both for and against the temporary permission, to the planning committee.

Ms Lees told the committee that the business, Chesil Equestrian, was set up in 1979 and had developed ever since offering riding and tuition to visitors and local people.

She said the site had adequate parking and the access track had been resurfaced. Her comments coming in response to criticisms in some letters of objection.

Said Cllr Kimber: “I will be pleased to see the main development completed. We have ancient fields around there and rights of way which are important to local people..I will support this because I want to see the area cleared up.”

Cllr Kate Wheller said she welcomed the equestrian business but found herself “somewhat concerned about how long it is taking…

“I would like to see the permanent fixture there, sooner rather than later,” she said.

Portland Town Council had not commented on the application because the applicant is a serving councillor.

Cllr Kevin Brookes said that in planning law a council could compel someone to start building, or have to face re-applying, but it seemed impossible to compel an applicant to complete an application.