Big Blu Sea restaurant given green light for Dunbar Harbour

Award-winning chef Christopher Percy-Davis has been given the green light to open up The Big Blu Sea for the next three years.

Mr Percy-Davis, who is behind the successful Big Blu – which serves up wood-fired pizzas from a converted Citroen H van – won the backing of both Dunbar Harbour Trust and the town’s community council.

The converted shipping container can now be in place from April to September and open from 11am to 8pm.

Mr Percy-Davis, who has been working in kitchens for more than 20 years, was delighted to get the go-ahead from East Lothian Council and revealed that the new business venture could be in place by early next month.

He said: “It has been a long process to get through planning but I’m thrilled to be approved.

“The unit is made up and ready to go and it is coming from the Borders from a guy who I used to work with when I was at Floors Castle.

“He has made it up and it will be delivered up here. Then, I will get it clad and finished off.”

Plans to transform a former shipping container into a new eatery in Dunbar Harbour have been approved

Originally, Mr Percy-Davis, who has previously worked in the private sector in the kitchens of villas, chalets and boats in the French Riviera, the Alps, Portugal, Switzerland and Ibiza, as well as Floors Castle in the Borders, had to win favour with Dunbar Harbour Trust, which manages the town’s harbour.

Then, planning permission was sought from East Lothian Council for the converted shipping container to serve “locally sourced fish, shellfish, meats and vegetables into Dunbar’s historic harbour as a celebration of the finest produce available in East Lothian”.

Pippa Swan, chairwoman of both the town’s community council and the shore and harbour neighbourhood group, was pleased to see the scheme moving forward.

READ MORE: Plans submitted for harbour eatery

She said: “It is just a really great addition to the harbour.

“There is going to be more and more need and wish for people to eat outside as long as Covid is going.

“To have a high-quality offering at the harbour can only be a great thing.”

Permission has been granted for the unit to be put in place for the six-month period, when it will then be removed as the harbourside is used for dry docking boats from October to March.

Plans to transform a former shipping container into a new eatery in Dunbar Harbour have been approved

Three objections were sent to East Lothian Council’s planning department, with concerns ranging from the additional traffic potentially generated by the snack bar, to the eatery changing the character of the working harbour.

However, the local authority’s planning department granted planning permission on a temporary basis for three years.

The planning officer’s report on the application notes: “As well as being an operational harbour, the harbours of Dunbar are one of Dunbar’s tourist attractions and attract tourists and visitors to it throughout the year but particularly in the summer months.

“In being a tourist attraction close to the town centre, the harbour contributes to the vibrancy and vitality of the town centre.

“Therefore the siting of a snack bar would contribute to and would not undermine the vibrancy of the Dunbar town centre.

“Given that the harbour is part of a wider area of public attraction and part of a ‘hub’ area for tourists and visitors, an operational requirement for the snack bar use in its position within the southeast corner of the harbour is justified.

“It would provide tourists and visitors with an extended choice of eating in the area, its operation would enhance and complement the existing facilities available to tourists and visitors who are already attracted to this part of Dunbar and in doing so would contribute to the economy of the town.”