Cafe owner Chinty Turnbull’s campaign to Buy Back Keswick, Brick By Brick has had a sky-high response.
Just days after launching her fight against the tide of holiday let developments in the town, she has received promises of more than £60,000 from supporters, many of whom gathered at her cafe on St John’s Street for this spectacular photograph.
Chinty set up BBK,BBB earlier this month after her landlord announced he was putting her building on the market, leading to fears that four first-floor flats would be snapped up as lucrative holiday lets.
Indeed, within 24 hours of the building going on the market through estate agents PFK, a prospective buyer paid a visit to check it out.
Determined to thwart the developers, Chinty – who opened her café in 2020 with business partner Suzy Bennett – started a crowdfunding appeal to raise the £825,000 asking price.
“The response has been amazing,” she said. “We’ve had people coming into the cafe and promising £1,000 and £2,000 – and this is before we’ve even got the campaign properly off the ground.
“When I put a message on Facebook asking if people would like to come down for the photograph, we were inundated.
“It just goes to prove that we have really hit a nerve. Locals are fed up with buildings in our town being sold to the highest bidder. Not only is it threatening to turn Keswick into one big holiday let, it is preventing young people from getting a foot on the housing ladder in their own town.
“I was born and brought up here, but I couldn’t afford to live here if I was starting out.”
Dissatisfaction with Keswick’s second home and holiday let situation has been growing in recent months, with local councillors taking up cudgels on behalf of beleaguered residents.
Last week a motion by Cllr Tony Lywood, urging action to close a loophole allowing tax breaks for second home owners, was unanimously passed by Cumbria County Council, which has agreed to lobby the Government on the matter.
Cllr Lywood, who represents Keswick on the council, warned that 80 per cent of some Lakeland villages are now second homes or holiday lets, while Keswick is nearing 40 per cent.
“We all understand the necessity for holiday lets and the need to get tourists into the Lake District, but it’s all to do with proportionality,” he said.
Cllr Lywood has been supported by Westmorland MP Tim Farron, who said: “The simple fact is that a wealthy person with a second home in the Lake District is being subsidised by someone from the same community who is on the breadline and going to the local food bank.”
