A Lake District garden centre has been ordered by the Government to stop using land as storage.
Lakeland Gardens Ltd applied to the Lake District National Park Authority to use the land off Birthwaite Road in Windermere, for a staff base, offices and some storage in 2019.
But, after a visit to the site in 2021, the authority found it was using it to store vehicles, trailers, equipment, skip, deposit of green waste and landscaping materials.
It concluded the development at the former garden centre was unauthorised.
The company appealed its decision. But the Planning Inspectorate has upheld the authority’s conclusion and ordered Lakeland Gardens Ltd to stop using the land.
A report by the inspectorate said the breach of planning control unacceptably harmed the living conditions of people living nearby.
A planning inspector said residents of a nearby retirement home said they were unable to use their gardens due to noise from the site.
“Another resident explains that they have been distressed and have suffered high levels of anxiety when out in the garden because of the noise,” said the inspector.
“Reference is also made to the source of the noise generated by the use of the land as a landscape contractors establishment, including noisy forklift trucks, loud reversing alarms and the loading/unloading of vans, as well as being disturbed at unsocial hours by the arrival of vehicles onto the land.”
The unauthorised development included the use of the land to the rear of the site and changes to land levels from previously approved plans.
A resident named in documents as Mr B complained to the local government and social care ombudsman that the LDNPA did not deal properly with planning matters at development on the former garden centre near his home and this had led to him being disturbed.
Among other allegations the resident said the authority failed to adequately publicise the planning applications and failed to deal effectively with breaches of planning control.
The ombudsman concluded in February 2022 there had been maladministration by the authority causing injustice and the LDNPA agreed to pay £250 to the resident in recognition for the uncertainty its failings have caused him.
Following the issuing of an enforcement notice on the site an appeal was lodged in 2022 which said the steps required by the notice to be taken, or the activities required by the notice to cease, exceed what is necessary to remedy any breach of planning control.
The company, in its appeal, said planning permission should be granted for what is alleged in the notice and that the slightly raised levels do not cause the effects cited.
The case of appeal added: “The potential loss of the building and scarce financial resources sunk into it will have a severe impact on the financial well-being of Lakeland Gardens potentially endangering its future sustainability.”
But the Planning Inspectorate said: “The appellant has not provided any evidence to support that contention or what the implications of that might be for the local economy. I am therefore unable to factor that into the overall planning balance.”
