By Georgia Ferda

The company behind new “floating hotel rooms” in Penarth Marina, the Deck restaurant, has defended the project, despite pushback from residents.

Nick Palit, who lives in the marina, said he first noticed them about 10 days ago. He said: “They’re extremely ugly. They look like portacabins or loos in a festival. It’s not a great thing to look out onto.”

Two pods have been installed so far, but protesters were able to stop the installation of another on Tuesday morning by linking arms around a crane.

The “floating hotel rooms” are the project of The Deck, which says it has done nothing wrong.

But locals have threatened to boycott the venue over the alleged unlawful installation of the pods.

Nick said: “We don’t want to protest, we want to live in peaceful co-existence with the business. It’s our neighbour, we used to frequent the restaurant but we’ve told him we’ll all boycott it.

“It ruins the whole aesthetic of the marina. Not just that, it’s the noise, there’s a danger of drowning for drunk people that have come out of the restaurant and they could fall in. They wouldn’t be aware of the dangers of cold water like this because they’re unlikely to be boating people.

“Also, there’s an abundance of wildlife here. There’s regular pairs of nesting swans, coots, moorhens, there’s even salmon in the water. This kind of green space should be protected under Welsh Government and National Resources guidelines. Protection of natural habitats is almost enshrined in law, you can’t come along and destroy it.”

A delivery of more pods and another attempt to install them is expected to happen soon. The Deck is hoping to have 10 pods fully installed by early January.