Neighbours have won their campaign to stop a backyard pool from being used for swimming and scuba diving lessons.
The retrospective application for 1 Courtyard Lane, off New Church Road, Hove, would have allowed up to six half-hour swimming lessons four days a week, private swimming sessions twice a week and monthly scuba classes.
Labour councillor Carmen Appich, who represents Westbourne ward on Brighton and Hove City Council, and two neighbours spelt out their concerns to the council’s Planning Committee.
And yesterday (Wednesday 9 March) the committee rejected the planning application at a meeting at Hove Town Hall.
One neighbour, Hal Mileham, said that the pool generated “intrusive and anti-social” noise all year round.
And a second neighbour, Marie Johnson, told the committee that the police and noise abatement officers had been called to the property in the past.
She said: “Your home should be a sanctuary where you relax and unwind. Paying customers and visitors of this pool have taken this away. When the screaming and shouting stop, you’re just waiting for it to start up again.”
She said that most of the 64 people who backed the application did not live in the area and could “go home away from the chaos” although supporters’ addresses were kept secret.
Councillor Appich raised concerns about access along Courtyard Lane, which is narrow, and focused on the noise levels generated by lessons and private swimming sessions already taking place at the pool.
Planning consultant Jonathan Puplett spoke on behalf of the applicant, Philippa Stephen-Martin, who had assumed the swimming classes could take place without planning permission.
After consulting council planning officials, she reduced the total duration of swimming classes and sessions from 33.5 hours a week to 18.5 on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Mr Puplett said: “We have taken on board the comments of neighbours – and the applicants fully appreciate the need to minimise any noise associated with the use of the swimming pool which is achieved through careful management and reduced hours of operation.
“All of the sessions are supervised by the owners of the property who are in attendance at all times.”
Labour councillor Daniel Yates said that he was considering installing a trampoline in his back garden but had no plans to start a trampolining club as he would not have suitable facilities.
He told the committee that previous applications for commercial use of outdoor pools had included requirements for appropriate changing facilities.
Councillor Yates said: “How many open pools do we want to see turned into semi-commercial uses, all of which with no appropriate facilities that people can access, all of which have limited access, all of which potentially causing a nuisance for neighbours?
“Potentially, as a pool, it opens the floodgates.”
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald said: “There should be proper facilities for something like this with commercial use.
“Those neighbours will have noise every single day which we have been told is a big problem.”
Green councillor Leo Littman, who chairs the Planning Committee, said: “It is a residential area and I think it would be a dangerous precedent to set to allow commercial use in this area, in particular, because it is impacting on so many residents.”
He said that he grew up in New Church Road and added that it was the longest street in Brighton and Hove without any shops or restaurants – and that should not change.
Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh called for the application to be refused on the grounds of noise, the smell of chlorine and highways issues.
Five councillors voted to reject the application, with none in favour. Two abstained.
