A lack of action by the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) to investigate what has been described as a “flagrant violation of planning” has been slammed by a Keswick county councillor.
The Keswick Community Housing Trust (KCHT) had wanted the authority to look into alleged breaches of local occupancy clauses at five apartments at The Warehouse on the town’s Southey Street. It wanted action after one of the apartments was being let on Airbnb over a number of years, although this activity has now stopped.
The KCHT had written to the LDNPA saying: “We would encourage you to seek confirmation that the other apartments are all being occupied in line with the local occupancy restrictions, and to secure undertakings that they will remain so.”
It was pointed out that the KCHT did not have evidence of breaches at the other five apartments but added that because of the flagrant breach already seen it would appreciate the LDNPA taking a proactive stance and exercising its right to require the owners to provide evidence that their apartments are being occupied in line with the local occupancy agreement and planning restrictions.
But Andrew Smith, head of development management at the LDNPA, said that while he understood the benefits of pro-active monitoring of breaches, the authority was “not in a staffing and workload position to take this forward at the moment”.
“We accumulated a significant backlog of enforcement matters during the Covid period due to increases in workload combined with staffing reductions,” said Mr Smith.
“We currently have almost 600 live compliance cases on the books. We have increased our staffing in that work stream as much as we are able (currently five team members plus five contractors – although most are part-time, so closer to five full-time equivalent).
“We are among the most active local authorities in England for formal action, 24th nationally (of 322) and 10th outside London (of 288) in latest Government figures.
“We are working through matters as quickly as we can, prioritising formal action. However, we are still only able to work on a reactive for the foreseeable.”
The response has angered Tony Lywood, who represents Keswick on Cumbria County Council who described as “pathetic” the LDNPA’s decision not to investigate.
“I have to say that the response is at best pathetic and at worst bordering on being absent at their post,” said Cllr Lywood. “The Lake District National Park is the enforcer in such things and if they can’t enforce then why bother to have a planning authority at all?”
He added: “At the Lake District National Park’s inception something like 60 per cent of the budget was spent on planners and enforcement.
“Now it is less than 10 per cent. The other 90 per cent is propping up an over-inflated bureaucracy of extremely well paid senior officers who seem to delight in producing a never ending series of reports that few will ever read let alone implement.
“I do not blame the planners themselves who are hard working, diligent and committed. It seems to me that the senior management at the Lake District National Park are blind to what needs to be done.
“They are also far too close to the larger businesses within the park and have become almost a second Cumbria Tourist Association. This is in my view is not their role.
“The key issues of enforcement and the lack of local housing for local people come very far down the list.
“The Lake District National Park is in need of a serious overhaul bringing it back to caring, conserving and protecting our landscape and the community within it. At the moment they seem to be travelling in a very different direction.
“The Lake District National Park saying that they are at the top of the list of enforcing national parks is slickly disingenuous as it is like saying that burglary prosecutions are slightly better in one area than another when everyone knows that prosecution for burglary is extremely unlikely anywhere in the UK.”
Bill Bewley, chair of the KCHT, said: “We have no choice but to go to them (the LDNPA) because they are the planning authority so they should be proactive on things like this.
“If they were proactive on this one then it might have a beneficial effect on the backlog of others because people will behave themselves.”
