Appeals over ‘party house’ thrown out
A “party house” in Bath city centre will not be allowed to remain after two appeals to the planning inspectorate were dismissed.
No.18 Raby Place (inset), owned by Bath Hot Houses, was formerly a B&B. Yet, in recent years it has been more like a “nightclub”, residents say, and in August 2021, the owner sought retrospective planning permission for a 25-bed holiday let.
When this was refused, the company scaled down its scheme and reapplied for a holiday let serving up to 12 people. In March, it was confirmed they had also appealed to the planning inspectorate to overturn the council’s ruling on the first application.
After reading the objections made by locals to their initial scheme, Bath Hot Houses tried to address concerns about noise in the scaled-back application, such as fining guests £500 if any noise complaints were made. This sum would be taken from the guests’ damage deposit.
They advised their customers to “reduce noise when entering or exiting” 18 Raby Place and to move around to the main road if going out to smoke after 9pm.
Bath Hot Houses, operating as Bath Luxury Rentals, also provided an example of a notice which would be displayed in the courtyard of the building, advising guests not to use that door after 10pm “due to near neighbours and noise control”.
Yet many residents still blasted the 12-bed scheme, saying the house resembled a “commercial nightclub”.
Some said in the past they had been forced to deal with revellers themselves, due to no management from Bath Luxury Rentals being on-site.
H Coury said: “The guests do not care about the local residents, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable. They are there for a short stay creating damage and noise till all hours of the morning forcing residents who are unable to sleep to have to confront them en masse in the early hours when they are drunk and don’t care because they know there is no comeback.”
Lauren Bryan added: “It’s more a commercial nightclub, under the disguise of an Airbnb. The neon lighting that beams out onto the street at night is like a nightclub. The centre of Bath is a good place for a bar or nightclub, with proper licensing, full-time management on-site and planning permission in place - not a quiet residential area.”
Permission for the 12-bed holiday let was refused on April 13, and Bath Hot Houses also appealed to the planning inspectorate regarding that decision.
This month planning inspector Tamsin Law returned her verdict. She dismissed both appeals, concluding that: “The pattern, nature and intensity of use, at such close proximity to neighbouring dwellings is and would be for both schemes, more than likely, materially harmful to the living conditions of neighbouring occupiers with regard to noise and disturbance.”
The noise was also a major concern for many of the 90 residents who objected to the previous application.
Residents complained that Raby Place was “unliveable” after the former B&B reopened as Steam House, and said the applicant’s threat of a £500 fine for a noise complaint was not much of a deterrent if it were split 25 ways.
You can view appeal decisions APP/F0114/W/22/3298757 and APP/ F0114/W/22/3291659 in full on the Planning Inspectorate website: https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk.