A reporting mechanism is to be set up by Keswick Town Council in an effort to tackle anti-social behaviour taking place at unmanaged holiday lets.
Councillors heard at the September meeting that there is a lack of data being collected to quantify the size, scale and seriousness of the problem.
They unanimously backed a proposal by Cllr Louise Dunn to “simplify and provide a method for people experiencing anti-social behaviour to report it.”
Council clerk Vivien Little said the Holiday House Nuisance Report, which will sit on the council’s website, would provide an evidence base that would allow Cumberland Council and the police to tackle issues and identify trends such as whether a management company’s name is cropping up more than others.
She said that at the moment the council has a lot of anecdotal information from people in the town that anti-social behaviour is taking place at unmanaged holiday lets but nothing is being reported to the authorities “and they are all just putting up with it”.
“It’s important that we shine a light on these issues so we have something to discuss with police and management as well as the owners,” she said.
Cllr Markus Campbell-Savours, Keswick’s representative on Cumberland Council, said before the authority would send round enforcement teams it would want to see an evidence base.
“The advice I would give is to push people to use it,” he said. “Remind people that there is this system and get a QR code that takes people through to online technology and when there is a nice bit of evidence that shows what the problem is then it (Cumberland Council) will be given a lot more power to do something about it.”
Cllr Dunn said: “A lot of people don’t take that extra step to make it (their complaint) formal and that is what we need to ask people to do.” Cllr Benita Lapthorn asked if there was going to be an area on the nuisance report where photos and videos could be uploaded. Cllr Dunn said this could be in phase two but Ms Little said there could be GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) issues with this.
Cllr Rob Nelson asked if the form could be anonymous but was told that police would not then act and it allows for malicious reporting.
“We are not seeking conflict with cottage owners or letting companies,” said Cllr Dunn. “I find that if you go and say there is a problem with ‘x’ then they act really quickly.”
