A FOOD kiosk ejected from the slipway at La Pulente two years ago could make a return after the nearby Nude Dunes restaurant was put on the rental market as a shop or office.
Karl Sutton, who ran the Hideout kiosk at La Pulente for seven years until October 2023, said he would be applying to the Planning Department and the parish of St Brelade to return to the spot – a third of the way down the slipway access road – where he had once traded.
The Hideout was forced to vacate because a condition of Mr Sutton’s permit stated that he had to move within 28 days of the Nude Dudes restaurant opening 30m away at the top of the slip.
However, although Nude Dunes did open in June 2023, it closed just five months later when the business went bust.
Now, after two failed attempts to change the use of the building into a holiday let, the owner has put the former restaurant up for rent.
Nadia Miller has also changed the designation of the building under byelaws – allowing her to market it as a shop, office, salon, betting office or any other public-facing business. However, this also prevents it being let as a hot food eatery or bar.
This has prompted Mr Sutton to act.
He said: “I set up the Hideout as an affordable place to grab a coffee and a bacon roll, and it was a popular place. I still have the kiosk and the staff are ready to go. I’ve also previously had planning permission and a permit from the landowner, which is the parish, so I hope we can come back soon.”
The issue of the Hideout and its continued existence has been a long-running saga since planning permission was given to develop the former toilet block at the top of access road into a restaurant in January 2016.
However, development did not start then, and the Hideout first opened in the top car park, by the toilets. Mr Sutton then agreed to move his kiosk down the road in 2020, when work to demolish the toilet block and build Nude Dunes was scheduled to begin.
The many chapters in the story have included Mr Sutton calling a parish meeting via a ‘requête’ to successfully keep trading, a Judicial Review in the Royal Court, which ended with an 11th-hour deal in which St Brelade agreed to pay Mr Sutton’s legal costs, and a petition which was signed by more than 5,000 people.
When news of Nude Dunes going on the rental market broke this week, St Brelade Deputy Montfort Tadier posted on social media: “Now that the owners of the former Nude Dunes building have indicated they have no desire to reopen as a restaurant / café, I think many would welcome the return of an unpretentious eatery on the slip again.
“The Hideout was popular and well used. This was all we ever needed.”
Speaking to the JEP, the politician – who organised a protest on the beach at La Pulente in July 2024 against attempts to turn the Nude Dunes into tourist accommodation – added that he understood that the kiosk concession would likely need to be part of an open tender process.
Speaking to that, Mr Sutton said he would happily be part of that process if it was a parish policy to put permits out to tender.
St Brelade Constable Mike Jackson told the JEP that he had no comment to make at this stage.
