A growing trend in Keswick for traditional guesthouses and B&Bs in quiet residential streets to be changed into entire holiday lets for large families and single groups must be curbed because of the nuisance they can cause to neighbours, a meeting has heard.
Members of Keswick Town Council spoke out about the increasing number of “change-of-use” planning applications it is seeing for B&Bs and guesthouses, where the owners or managers live on-site, to be turned into large holiday lets with little to no on-site supervision.
Councillors fear an unmanaged influx of big groups on short stays pouring into once-quiet B&B areas could change life for residents with neighbours having little course for redress, its August meeting was told.
The Lake District National Park Authority – which ultimately approves or refuses such applications – has also come under scrutiny from Keswick Town Council for appearing to open the door to such developments, after agreeing a new 15-year development plan in May which includes policies on the supply of holiday accommodation in Lake District towns like Keswick.
Cllr Paul Titley warned the town council now has to guard against “class one properties seeking a change to class three” from the national park and urged councillors not to be “naive” about what it meant.
“I’ve run a large holiday let and if you think that large family groups are somehow one harmonious choir then you are joking,” said Cllr Titley. “My worst experience was a family reunion which halfway through the week decided it wasn’t very united at all.
“If you buy a property next to a B&B, you know what you are getting, but a holiday let can be like living next door to an instant nightclub,” he said.
Guests left in hands of external agency
Oversight of guests at holiday lets often fell to an external agency, especially if the property owners did not live in the town, the council meeting was told.
Cllr Titley said: “Who’s going to manage that? Who’s going to check on that? Is someone going to pop round every now and again and ask: ‘Hands up who’s got the same surname?’ It is ridiculous. What it also fails to acknowledge is the social impact of having an instant nightclub next to your property.”
But Steve Harwood, head of the council’s three-member planning group, described Cllr Titley’s objections as “totally subjective”.
Cllr Harwood said the council could not assume that every holiday let application given permission would result in a social problem on Keswick’s streets.
Cllr Titley replied: “You want to live next door to one!”
The debate came as the council considered its position on an application for 43 Eskin Street, Keswick. A Penrith-based applicant is seeking permission to create a seven-bed holiday let from the existing five-bed B&B Squirrel Lodge, which has a two-bed owners’ accommodation.
Eleven councillors voted 10-1 against the idea and will now urge the national park to refuse. Another change-of-use application exists a few doors away at 37 Eskin Street, Keswick, for the Rowan Tree Guest House, and for nearby 51 Helvellyn Street.
Cllr Peter Terry believes that long term the trend could degrade local residential housing and called it “morally wrong.”
