The controversial planning application to build a 71-bedroom Premier Inn hotel in Keswick should not be dealt with in private because of the coronavirus lockdown, says the town’s representative on the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA).
Keswick Town Council had backed a local community campaign in February by voting unanimously to object to the plan by brewery giant Whitbread to open one of its national chain hotels on the site of the former Ravensfield nursing home in High Hill.
That recommendation, based largely on concerns about over-development and flooding, was to have been considered when the LDNPA was due to decide the plan’s fate at its meeting in Kendal on either 6th May or 3rd June. Lockdown means those meetings are unlikely to take place, other than possibly in virtual form via the internet.
Either way, Cllr Tony Lywood insists the hotel plan should not be decided behind closed doors under extended delegated powers by an LDNPA officer, which could be another possibility. “I would be extremely disturbed, worried and dismayed if an officer of the LDNPA thought it was a good idea to try to make a decision on such a contentious and hot topic like that, rather than go to the development control committee (DCC),” said Cllr Lywood, who is Keswick’s county councillor as well as an LDNPA member.
His comments came at the town council’s virtual meeting on Thursday night after Keswick’s mayor Cllr David Burn had asked for an update from Geoff Davies, the LDNPA’s north distinct area representative, which includes Keswick. Mr Davies said his understanding was that the Premier Inn was not the kind of application that should be determined under extended delegated powers, especially when site visits were suspended. “I would want it considered by the DCC, even if it is a virtual DCC,” Mr Davies added.
Keswick’s MP Trudy Harrison has backed the local campaign against the proposed plans to build a Premier Inn hotel in the town, having met its leader Tony Pinnick, who runs a local guest house. She said the hotel with bar, restaurant and 30 parking spaces would have a negative impact on the town.
More than 80 residents and business owners attended a public meeting in Keswick to voice unanimous opposition to the hotel plan. The main areas of concern are flood impact, site overdevelopment, car parking and traffic.
The Premier Inn would be the first venture into Keswick by any major hotel chain. More than 3,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the plan, while nearly 80 per cent of 223 people who responded to the public consultation exercise thought the vacant site was not appropriate for a Premier Inn.
