Vape shop’s ‘hideous’ retrospective shop design plan rejected

​The retrospective application for shopfront advertising in Scarborough’s conservation area has been blocked after the scheme was slammed as “hideous” by town councillors.

Unique Home Properties Ltd said it had installed its signage at the vape and confectionery shop at 91-91A Westborough “without prior advertisement consent” due to an “inadvertent oversight”.

​The ‘Yes Store’ is located in a historic corner plot in the designated Scarborough Conservation Area and the town’s primary shopping area. The Grade II-listed Capitol Plaza is adjacent to the shop.

​“The glazing to the front is completely filled by internally secured vinyl signs advertising primarily vapes but other miscellaneous goods sold within the store,” a report notes.

​Planners described the design as a “garish, multi-coloured, contemporary form of advertisement signage with overly large letters which dominate the fascia and which visually jars and clashes with the traditional façade of the building”.

​They added: “The sum of this is an unsympathetic shop front which harshly juxtaposes with the attractive historic detailing and architecture of the host building, resulting in significant visual harm to the appearance of the building and character of the surrounding area.”

​Officers concluded that the signage visually detracts from the host building in a harmful way because of its “‘lively’ frontage in comparison to the broad traditional and subdued character of the area, and thus, fails to preserve the characteristics of the host building and the appearance and character of the designated conservation area”.

​North Yorkshire Council rejected the application on Friday, April 24.

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