The Michelin restaurant that’s left villagers boiling with rage
MOST villages would love to have a restaurant with two Michelin stars.
But the people of Summerhouse in County Durham are growing heartily sick of theirs.
The Raby Hunt, where prices start at £130-a-head, was opened in 2009 by celebrated chef James Close and awarded two Michelin stars seven years later.
However, it is now at loggerheads with many of the 140 villagers, who are fed up with what they claim is a constant stream of wealthy diners and delivery vans blocking the bus stop and side roads.
Tensions mounted when the exclusive restaurant announced a plan to expand into an adjoining cottage to provide extra guest bedrooms – visitors to the restaurant can also book a room for £180 a night.
In one of several objection letters to Darlington Council, residents Justin and Tiffany Fear said the lack of car parking spaces had left them ‘ prisoners in our own house that daren’t go out’.
Mr Fear, 40, said yesterday: ‘Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday we have to put cones outside our own house because if we don’t, when we come back we will not be able to park. It’s not a case of just parking up the road, we have to go miles away.’
He said his elderly in-laws, who live next door, are frequently forced to lug heavy bags of shopping across the village because they cannot park. Barbara Braithwaite, chairman of Summerhouse Village Hall committee, said locals attempted to resolve the parking issue by offering The Raby Hunt use of the village hall car park for £50-a-week – less than the cost of a bottle of wine at the restaurant.
She said: ‘ The Raby Hunt car park only holds half a dozen cars, but it brings in at least an extra ten cars a day. In a tiny hamlet like this it makes a big difference.
‘Staff, visitors and delivery drivers just park wherever they want, they block the bus stop and spaces outside people’s front doors.’
Mrs Braithwaite, 65, added: ‘We promised they could use the village hall car park if they gave us £50 a week which we would donate to charity.
‘They turned it down and said they couldn’t afford it. You couldn’t even buy a bottle of wine in the restaurant for £50! The restaurant is fabulous but they are just not interested in the village. They treat us with contempt.’
Last night, restaurant owner Russell Close, father of chef James, said the accusations of late night noise were ‘blatantly untrue’, adding: ‘We have done nothing but enhance the local area and boost house prices in Summerhouse.
‘It is blatantly untrue to say there is noise and disruption. It’s a two Michelin-starred restaurant. The calibre of guests is very high end, they are not partying late into the night.’
Planning officers have recommended the restaurant’s expansion plans for approval by councillors later this week, stating it would cause ‘a negligible increase in customers visiting the premises’. The impact on residents and road issues was ‘certainly not sufficient to warrant a refusal’, they added.