A developer who hoped he had found a way around planning rules to get permission for his holiday let has been left disappointed.
KDS Developments, owned by Darren and Kevin Short, cited a successful planning appeal by the owner of another holiday home when trying to get the green light for their house in Tidy Street.
Carolyn Goodman had successfully argued she should be allowed to let out her house in Marlborough Mews to tourists as it had been used that way for four years.
The Shorts’ planning consultant Lewis and Co Planning argued that this application should be approved on the same basis – that the previous use of the house provided an exception to the rule homes cannot become holiday lets.
But the council cited a different planning appeal decision on a house in Marlborough Street in which inspector Paul Burley said: “I do not consider that (exception) is intended to provide a means to justify the loss of residential accommodation on the basis of the length of time that the unauthorised use has subsisted or because the council has been informed of the change of use, not least when a change of use has taken place in the recent past as is the case here.”
The application had received 27 objections from members of the public, many of them neighbours of the house.
One resident said: “This party house has been a major cause of noise and other nuisance in our street for some time now.
“Note that this party house is advertised online for groups of 10 people and that in itself is inappropriate given the size of the property.”
Another, who said they were a ward councillor but whose name had been redacted on the council website, said: “More properties across the North Laine are given over to full-time short-term lets.
“Every holiday let takes away a family home, drives up house prices and erodes the community.
“It is not surprising that schools are closing in the area due to the decline in young families living living here.”
For those of you negatively affected by a holiday let this means now the council can easily and quickly close the holiday let down if you just file an objection to it on here https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/planning/planning-enforcement. The only exception to this policy is if the property has been continuously and with solid proof of this been operating in this way for over 10 years.
Hopefully, the council will also start proactively closing all the holiday lets that have been sprouting up like mushrooms everywhere which should free up more residential housing using this ruling.
Well done council, we need to stop these holiday let’s which makes life hell for neighbours and which just adds to the housing crisis
A victory for sense! Down with ‘property developers’ – they are a cancer on society and generally are a group of unskilled and unintelligent fools who can’t earn a living through anything requiring skills or expertise. They are no more valuable to society than marketing or P.R. wasters.
You do realise that the place you’re living in was built by none other than… a property developer! They are essential to a functioning society – without them we’d have nowhere to live. I’d say this lot were more like landlords, looking to maximise their rental yield. Happily, this sensible decision will stop that happening.
I’ve lived in this actual house. It’s a real shame to see such a nice house get used as a holiday let to make a couple of people rich at the disrespect of the entire neighborhood
Thank goodness. Now if the council could stand up to student house landlords around the city especially in Coldean, Bevendean, Moulsecoomb, Hanover and the Lewes Road area the housing crisis in Brighton might ease. Too many houses in Brighton have been turned into short term holiday lets or student houses to maximise profits for home owners rather than provide much needed housing for families.
Yes! Victory for common sense.
Buy to let mortgages and holiday lets are an absolute scourge on society. These greedy people give no thought to the needs of the community, they’re only interested in profit.