The wave of B&Bs and guest houses in residential areas of Keswick becoming self-catering holiday lets shows no sign of diminishing.
But at its latest meeting, Keswick Town Council gave a rare show of support for a change-of-use planning application for the Glencoe Guest House at 21 Helvellyn Street.
Owners Ben and Fiona Goodman have applied to the Lake District National Park Authority for it to become a holiday let.
That was backed at the latest meeting of Keswick Town Council on the basis that the couple would continue to live on-site.
The final decision rests with planners at the LDNPA, which invites comments on planning applications in Keswick from the town council.
Cllr Steve Harwood, head of the council’s three-member planning panel, said of the Glencoe application that it was slightly different to change-of-use plans by Richard Corder, for Pitcairn House, 7 Blencathra Street, and David Petty, for Thornleigh Guest House at 23 Bank Street.
Cllr Harwood said of Glencoe: “We are supporting this. This is the 18th application of this type since June 2020. There is a lack of clarity of how this change of use will be managed but it appears that it is intended to retain the owners’ accommodation which will provide on-site management.”
The council upheld the panels’ objections to holiday let plans for the Thornleigh, and Pitcairn House. Cllr Harwood said of the latter: “It appears from the submitted plans that the owners’ accommodation is to be split to form part of two self-containing units.
“We maintain our objection to this type of application where the change of use results in a change from on-site to off-site management, which we feel is a significant difference, particularly given the difficulties in pursuing enforcement action against anti-social behaviour.
“We believe that routine approval of such applications with no distinction of how it will be managed is having a detrimental impact on the type of holiday accommodation available, and housing for local need because of the displacement of management.”
Despite the town council’s opposition, the LDNPA has gone on to allow every change-of-use. It follows the introduction of a policy supporting one type of tourism accommodation applying to become another.
