A list of local occupancy properties in the Lake District due to be published for the first time next month is being delayed.
The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) had last year agreed to publish a definitive register after it emerged that three houses in Keswick had been rented out as holiday lets for years despite having local occupancy clauses on them.
The document was seen as being a key development in cracking down on people who were breaching local occupancy agreements to cash in on the booming holiday let market. Its initial publication date was set for the end of March 2021 but that has now been moved back to the summer, at the earliest.
“The promise of an definitive local occupancy list is going to be postponed because of lockdown,” Councillor Tony Lywood told Keswick Town Council colleagues.
“We will not get it by the end of March. However, I am assured that the LDNPA that Keswick will be a priority,” he added.
The news did not go down well, Keswick mayor Paul Titley saying it was “absolute rubbish” to blame the delay on lockdown.
Mr Titley said: “It is a poor performance by the national park. People have been working online from home for almost a year. We have been asking for this information for about 10 years.”
Mr Lywood, who is a member of the LDNPA, took a more sympathetic stance. He said this week: “COVID has taken its toll. I understand that and I accept that.
“I have asked the LDNPA to make sure the list is done by the end of this summer, which is six months behind the initial date.
“Keswick will be given priority and they will make sure we are done first.”
He was equally concerned that the LDNPA follow up the publication of the list with “rigorous and consistent enforcement.”
Mr Lywood wants the LDNPA to focus more on planning, which he said currently only took up 10 per cent of its budget.
