Plans for staff accommodation at a Lake District restaurant and hotel have been given the green light.
Broadrayne Farm, near Grasmere, will create detached, timber-framed units for workers as it is struggling to recruit people from the area.
Applicant David Keighley told yesterday’s meeting of the national park authority’s development control committee that the business, which also offers cottage accommodation, was struggling to recruit people who lived nearby.
“Adverts that we put forward, 95 per cent, I would say, of the responses that we get are people that need accommodation,” he said.
“Basically, there’s no local properties in the area that people can rent anymore so really, for us, any help you can give us in supporting us would be greatly appreciated.”
He blamed the pandemic and ‘maybe’ Brexit for staff shortages and recruitment difficulties.
Authority member Judith Derbyshire said the plans appeared to show double beds in each room in the units. Having couples in each room would mean eight people occupying the staff accommodation.
She asked if there would be room to accommodate, potentially, eight vehicles. National park authority planner Chris Kempster said: “There is a number of car parking spaces there.
“Eight cars may be a struggle. There currently would be enough for four but I suspect eight may be tight.”
Mr Keighley told the meeting: “If we do recruit a couple, no way will we allow them to bring two cars onto site.”
The application faced opposition from Grasmere Village Society prior to the meeting.
Mary Bass, secretary, said in a representation on behalf of the society that the accommodation would be an ‘incongruous addition’ to the countryside location.
“The development would result in harm to the visual amenity of residents and visitors, including in views from the surrounding common land and main road,” she said.
In the discussion among authority members at the meeting, Tiffany Hunt said she did not feel the planned accommodation was intrusive.
She said she was ‘comfortable with the design of the building and the modest scale’ of the proposal and that she had a ‘lot of sympathy’ when it came to the issue of recruiting staff and providing accommodation.
The application was given unanimous approval subject to the addition of a tree planting condition.
