A NEW shopfront has been approved for a former ‘Vape’ café at the bottom end of Dorchester South Street.

The town’s Civic Society had encourage the approval claiming it would improve the look of the conservation area, while town councillors also supported the change.

The building, at South Terrace, is currently empty. The shopfront is part of a listed building with an additional door which leads to an accountant’s office upstairs. That business will be unaffected by the proposed changes.

Agents for the owners said in their application to Dorset Council: “The overall shop frontage is a jumble of materials that jar with each other and the shop front is badly proportioned and doesn’t make best use of the potential window display area. The shop front looks tired and is out of character for that of Dorchester conservation area and is incongruous with the listed mid C19 building it is within. The overall frontage isn’t unified and the existing tiny window display area is preventing anyone from taking on the otherwise desirable shop space…

“It is felt that the proposed shopfront would be a huge improvement on what currently exists as it would not only create a more desirable business premises, but one that is stylistically appropriate for the C19 building and the context of Dorchester high-street.”