An amended proposal to build a youth centre and residential development in Keswick has won support from the town council despite nearby residents still voicing objections.
Addressing members of the town council, the chairman of its planning committee, Duncan Miller said the design now presented for the youth centre in The Old Mill, off Main Street, was for a two-storey building with a traditional pitched roof incorporating accommodation.
He said this was instead of the original proposal for a three-storey building with a non traditional pitched roof which he concluded represented “a significant change in the overall scale and visual impact of the development”.
But speaking at the meeting on behalf of local residents, Brian Moffat said the proposed development is very large and remains too high and overbearing.
“There has been reference to it being two-storey but in reality it is a three-storey building including a car park area underneath,” he said. “The building directly overlooks both by windows and staircase and overshadows both the nearby flats and the very close terrace residential properties of Old Mill Court.
“It remains a massive rectangular structure not in keeping with its location in a conservation area. It dwarfs the residential properties occupied by local residents and its bulk remains completely unsympathetic to the residents of these properties.
“It would create a loss of amenity, a loss of natural daylight, and in the view of the residents a claustrophobic, hemmed in feeling for all the families who live here.”
Mr Moffat pointed out that the town council had expressed safety concerns regarding traffic entering and exiting the area from the main road and added that residents also have flooding, surface water, sewerage and flood defence concerns.
“We as local residents are not against the building of a youth club but a development in this location needs to be sympathetic in size and in design to the area and to the community that lives adjacent to the site,” he said.
In response Jorrit Jorritsma, vice chairman of the Keswick Youth Centre Services, said that the number of young people using the service had grown from 150 to 180.
“Demand is clearly growing out there and this is why we are doing this,” he said. He added that the old mill building that used to be there was virtually the same height and the footprint for the proposed new building was smaller.
“From our point of view we feel that we have done everything we can to get to a place where we have a proposal that is as least overbearing as possible.
“We are very aware that we don’t live there and we are very conscious of our neighbours and the neighbourly impact. But we have done everything we can to minimise the visual impact.”
The meeting was told that the final decision on the youth centre would be made by the Lake District National Park Authority and a site visit was due to take place on October 12.
Cllr David Burn said: “I find this a very difficult one. The difficulty is that we want to support the building of a new youth club but on the other hand we have got to be aware of the impact on local residents.
“I have voted every time against the proposals. The main problem now is that residents have got used to nothing opposite and the openness of the site but having heard what the vice chairman of the youth services has said about the new building being of the same height as the previous one, I am leaning towards supporting the application.”
Councillors voted unanimously to recommend that the planning application be recommended for approval.
