The heat is being turned up on holiday let owners who are using properties in Keswick in defiance of local occupancy clauses.
A team of volunteers have started walking the streets checking data provided by Allerdale Borough Council about properties receiving small business rate relief.
“Almost all of these are holiday lets,” said Keswick’s mayor Paul Titley, who is among the volunteers carrying out the checks.
“A group of councillors and other volunteers decided to check the list out, wandering the streets to see if it is correct.
“There are about 580 on the list and about 150 have been observed,” said Mr Titley.
The Lake District National Park Authority has already promised that by April it will produce a definitive list of properties with section 106 agreements which bar them from being used as holiday lets or second homes.
Meanwhile, the town council is to call for holiday lets to be excluded from small business rate relief when it meets next month.
Under the current rules, holiday let owners can avoid council tax by declaring their property a business – and then apply for rate relief.
“The residents of Keswick pay a precept and are subsidising the holiday lets. It is a double whammy.” he said.
The problem was highlighted last month when The Keswick Reminder revealed that three properties in Bridge Court with local occupancy clauses were being used as holiday lets.
Councillor Sally Lansbury said some ex-council houses in Keswick were now being used as self-catering holiday properties despite having been bought under right to buy legislation with section 157 conditions, which only allows them to be used as residential homes.
She urged people to report any such breaches to the town council so it can check them out on an interactive map.
Keswick’s LDNPA representative – Councillor Tony Lywood – emphasised the importance of the list it was currently compiling.
“This is more important than any other LNDPA report I have come across. We need that list.”
He said holiday lets should pay full business rates.
Referring to a holiday let near his house in Keswick, he added: “I pay £2,500 in rates and they pay nothing.
“Yet the property is occupied 45 weeks a year. It is an absolute outrage.”