A couple seeking to make changes to properties that they own in a Lake District village have been refused by the national park.
Miss S Mawdsley and Mr M Rankin, of Oak Vale at Braithwaite, near Keswick, were turned down in a decision by planning officers.
The application wanted to demolish two properties and then recreate them elsewhere in the grounds, but making them larger and with more bedrooms.
The bungalow, Oak Vale, would be kept as a single detached dwelling, according to documents submitted to the authority. The site contains two holiday lets and the Oak Vale bungalow, which the couple live in, with the properties purchased in 2019, a national park report said.
Agents representing the couple in the application said there would be “no” detrimental effect on the area or its surroundings.
But the proposals drew opposition, including from Above Derwent Parish Council, which “strongly” objected in a comprehensive response to the plan.
Oak Vale was originally built to provide manager’s accommodation for the Middle Ruddings Hotel.
In its submission, the parish council told the national park that the percentage of homes not used for permanent residence in the area is already over 40 per cent, while 26 per cent of residential properties were now used as holiday lets.
It said the two new properties would be “three storeys” in height and that if they were built, they should be ring-fenced as local occupancy only.
One objector claimed that the two new properties would be let by the applicants as either holiday lets or sold to second home owners.
They wrote: “There is already a high proportion of such properties in the village, and having more will not serve any local need, but rather further compromise the viability of our village.”
Planners refused the application. This was on the grounds that they believed it would cause “harm to the character and appearance of the settlement” and the two new homes would not “result in an enhancement of the immediate setting.”
