THE owner of a shop in Westcliff has been told to rip out shutters installed without planning permission following complaints.

The empty shop, in Hamlet Court Road, has two solid shutters installed on the locally listed building designated as heritage asset, without planning consent, Southend councillors were told.

Planning officers said the micro perforated grey shutters “do not allow views of the window display behind and inhibit the appreciation of the architectural quality and fine detailing of the shopfront and effectively present a 10metre wide dead frontage in this section of Hamlet Court Road”.

The shutters replaced previous ones which also did not have planning permission. The council said it received a complaint about the shutters in 2020.

An application in 2021 to keep the shutters was refused due to their design and scale which was found to be harmful to the character and appearance of the existing shopfront. The decision was upheld at a subsequent appeal.

On Wednesday Southend Council’s development control committee sanctioned enforcement action to remove them.

Speaking at the meeting Maxine Sadza, Labour councillor for Milton Ward, said: “I agree with the officers. It affects the whole streetscape near a conservation area. People who have houses and businesses in the area know that it has been like this for two years.”

A report to the committee said the security benefits of the shutters “are not considered to outweigh the harm to the assets”, adding: “The proposal is therefore considered to be unacceptable and fails to comply with policy. The development would, overall and on balance, harm the character and appearance of the host property, including its significance as a non-designated heritage asset and as a frontage of townscape merit, and the surrounding area.”

It adds: “Solid or micro perforation shutters in particular, have a detrimental effect on townscape, creating ‘dead’ frontages, attracting graffiti and flyposting, and generally destroying the appearance of an area. When shut, solid shutters also prevent internal surveillance of the building. This type of shutter will not be considered acceptable.”

Councillors approved the enforcement action and the shop owners will now be ordered to remove the two shutters and associated shutter box housings from the front of the building.