Plans to change another B&B and family home in Keswick into two self-catering holiday lets have sparked warnings that Keswick has sold its soul to tourism.
Cllr Peter Terry told a town council meeting that family members returning to Keswick now regarded it as having “lost all its localness” and that it had “given itself over to visitors” in the same way tourist towns had in places such as St Ives in Cornwall.
It followed discussion of another planning application from Keswick to the national park – this time for a property at 29 Church Street.
It comes hard on the heels of a string of applications this year which the town council has opposed yet were all given the go-ahead in the final decision by planners at the LDNPA.
Cllr Terry did not oppose the application as he said there was little point in doing so because the national park would only give it the go-ahead.
He said: “It’s not a locals’ town anymore and I’m ashamed that the district council has actually gone out of its way to make it available to visitors — it supports all these different weekend events and activities and it’s a place for visitors.
“If we want visitors, you have got to have places for these visitors to stay, and it’s the reason we’ve got visitors that property is so expensive and we can get local houses, and we can’t have it both ways.
“You either have visitors here and see property prices rise and local people not able to get a place, or go back and revert to what the town was 40 years ago — not a holiday town — but for people who came to walk the mountains. And we can’t have it both ways.”
Cllr Steve Harwood, head of the council’s planning group, said it objected to the principle of losing another family home, but Cllr Terry said: “You are not going to stop it, so what’s the point?”
Cllr Lywood did not agree but was told by Cllr Terry: “You haven’t been here as long as I have.”
Cllr Lywood said he had raised a family in Keswick, his children had been educated locally, and that he had lived in the town for nearly 40 years.
He said: “Our lifeblood runs from tourism. The truth is most of the people in the town in some way are employed by the tourism industry either directly or indirectly.
“The two are not mutually exclusive. In other words, we don’t have to wholly give ourselves over to the tourism industry and we don’t have to wholly give ourselves over as a local town which discourages visitors.
“The point is that we need tourists for our economy but we should also not allow it to destroy the very thing that we all love and cherish here which is the community.”
Cllr Paul Titley believes large properties in Keswick are being changed from guesthouses into a “dwelling” but suspects its a backdoor way of then converting them into staff accommodation or a home of multiple occupation (HMO).
Cllr Titley wants the national park authority to add new conditions to prevent homes intended as “dwellings” being a short cut to getting staff accommodation without the neighbours noticing .
Cllr Titley said: “If you want it to be staff accommodation, then damn well apply for it to be staff accommodation so that the neighbours can have a chance to comment on it. If the property is to be converted into a staff house – which is like having student accommodation put next door to you – you, as a neighbour should be able to comment on that at the planning stage.
“But it’s never mentioned in the application and never reviewed as a condition that it must not be used as a staff house. That neighbour has no idea it’s a staff house until the day they all move in, by which time it becomes a matter of the authorities trying to tidy up after the decision has already been taken.”
Applicants have applied to turn 22 Stanger Street from a guesthouse into a dwelling but Cllr Titley clarified that his remarks were not aimed at that specific application.
