Keswick Town Council celebrated a landmark win last week in its battle to put the brakes on the surge of family-run B&Bs becoming free-for-all holiday lets.
On March 6, planners at the Lake District National Park Authority refused permission to change the use of eight-bed Amble House at Eskin Street, whose applicant’s address is nearly 100 miles away from Keswick in Leyland, Lancs.
It is believed to be the 38th planning application of its kind in Keswick in just 45 months.
And it is the first to be thrown out by the LDNPA on the grounds that change of use could exacerbate existing problems and un-neighbourly behaviour already suffered by residents surrounded by other holiday lets.
It remains to be seen whether the applicant goes to appeal, but commenting on the decision by the LDNPA, Keswick mayor Steve Harwood, of Keswick Town Council, said he hoped it marked an important change.
Cllr Harwood said: “I certainly hope it is a change in how these applications will be viewed in future but will wait and see if this is the case.
“I do think the strategy adopted by (national park) planners to date has had a damaging impact with such a large number of guest houses jumping on the bandwagon of holiday lets with no on-site control.”
However, park planners have also had their hands tied because of a lack of hard evidence to justify a change of use refusal on the grounds it might make problems worse.
And that’s what makes last week’s decision so different.
As reported in the Reminder last September, Keswick Town Council established a simple “reporting mechanism” by which neighbours could feed in formal complaints.
Those have been logged and submitted into the planning process – leading national park planning officers to recommend refusal on an evidence basis.
Neighbours living near holiday lets in Eskin Street told the LDNPA: “Keswick is becoming overrun with self-catering properties which offer no supervision so the residents are becoming subjected to a very unpleasant living environment,” wrote one.
“We have two self catering properties at the rear of our house and which, when occupied, create issues for us and the necessity of dealing with the occupants on a relatively regular basis.
“The owners of both houses live in the North East and have no interest in curtailing their guests’ behaviour.”
Cllr Harwood said up to 200 guest house bedrooms with on-site management have been lost in Keswick. They have been replaced by the same number of holiday let bedrooms with no control, he said.
“It also results in over 30 owners or managers’ homes being displaced to be accommodated elsewhere,” said Cllr Harwood.
“A key factor in this case has been concerns raised by neighbouring properties on anti-social behaviour experiences which has supported our contention about the importance of having on-site management to control such issues.
“This shows the importance of having written evidence to record such incidents and we urge all those who have been affected to write to the town council to back up our concerns.”
National park planners said: “This evidence is a material consideration to this application as it paints a picture of the type of impacts that are arising from large holiday letting units within the town and the ineffectiveness of management procedures put in place.
“In my view this evidence indicates that there is a higher likelihood of disturbance and un-neighbourly behaviour arising from large units of holiday accommodation in areas where residential properties are in close proximity, and casts doubt on the confidence we can have in management regimes effectively mitigating these impacts.”
