The owner of a Lake District holiday let at the centre of claims about noisy parties in a sleepy village has won a planning battle with the national park.
Charles Collins, a Southport-based businessman and owner of five-star Conn Cottage, Bampton, near Shap, has been allowed to keep a 10ft x 9ft oak gazebo at the property.
It was erected without planning permission over a hot tub, which was at the centre of claims about it generating noise from visitors.
In October, planners at the national park refused to grant backdated permission for him to keep the gazebo, and it became the subject of a national park enforcement case.
Mr Collins, who had understood the development was permissible, sought retrospective permission for it to stay, but was turned down and then appealed.
A planning inspector has now ruled in his favour and ordered that the gazebo can stay.
His report said that the gazebo was not overbearing on neighbours. Objectors had argued that the gazebo had led to the hot tub being used more often, especially in poor weather.
But the inspector, TJ Burnham, found: “I do not consider that the presence of the gazebo offers any significant additional incentive to use the hot tub.
“By their nature, they can and are just as easily used in rainy or cold weather or during evening times. If anything, it could be the case that the structure acts to limit the spill of noise associated with the use of the hot tub.”
Bampton Parish Council had objected to the retrospective application, citing the propensity to cause noise and disturbance.
Objectors had said noise from the hot tub had caused upset, while others had questioned whether it was in-keeping with a peaceful residential village in a conservation area.
