The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Neighbours try to shut glamping resort over in-tents sex noises
A GLAMPING resort faces closure after neighbours complained about loud sex noises from guests staying in tents.
One resident wrote to the local authority complaining about repeated renditions of 1980s hit Islands in the Stream “over and over”. Another said she was able to hear people having “sex in the thin tents” pitched in the back garden of a house in Lymington, Hampshire.
The Secret Garden Glamping site consists of two 16ft tents set up behind a three bedroom semi-detached house in a residential area of the town.
According to its website, it has been running for four years and provides spaces for guests to “rest, relax and play in”. The owner of the site, Liz Feay, sought planning permission to use part of her garden as a glamping site for five months a year.
In a letter to New Forest district council in January, her planning agent said the application was submitted after enforcement enquiries were made about the business in 2023.
But after the initial application, residents voiced their objections.
Mel Sims, 51, said: “I live directly behind this garden and see the tent top from my windows. I bought this house last year thinking it was in a quiet cul de sac. That is until people come to stay there. The noise from this garden/field in the summer is too much, often past midnight. There is music, loud chat, sex in the thin tents we all awkwardly hear and swearing. I do not want to back onto a clamping or campsite.”
Neighbour Daniel Wells said: “As this is specifically targeted at holidaying guests socialising continues through the working week, disturbing sleep for myself, my wife and our son whose bedroom is at the back of the house.
“Most upsetting perhaps is that on several occasions we have had to close the window to block out the sound of a couple engaging in acts of a sexual nature, which the fabric walls of a tent clearly did not and do not contain.
“There was a karaoke machine there for a time and on one notable sunny afternoon while trying to enjoy our garden with friends, we had to instead listen to a couple blaring out Islands in the
Stream over and over, deluded in thinking they were Dolly and Kenny.
“This same karaoke machine was used top volume at 6am by a child yelling into the microphone.”
Stephanie Glasspool said she could also hear “people having sexual intercourse”, saying this was “far beyond what one would expect in a residential family neighbourhood”. Andy and Gillian Doel said during the summer ash blew into their garden from campfires at the site.
Mr Doel, 58, said: “We camp. Most campsites have rules about noise. But, they are people from London that have never camped. To me, it’s just an unreasonable thing to do.”
Mr Doel said he fears if the planning approval is accepted, other houses with big gardens will do the same.
“Last summer was the tipping point because there was a lot more antisocial behaviour,” he added.
Members of the Lymington and Pennington town council planning committee have now voted against Ms Feay’s application and recommended that the council rejects it.
A decision is expected before March 6. Ms Feay declined to comment.