The George and Dragon, a popular pub located in Clifton, reopened its doors to the public last June after fire forced its closure the previous year.
Following the fire, the George and Dragon underwent extensive rebuild and refurbishment work. As part of the refurbishment, a new kitchen extraction system was installed at the rear of the property, with the extractor system situated just centimetres away from neighbouring property boundaries.
Concerns from local residents and neighbours regarding the visual impact on nearby properties, as well as noise and odours emanating from the extractors, were raised with the business owner and with Clifton Community Council.
Clifton Community Council and local residents raised the situation with Westmorland and Furness Council who initiated a planning enforcement case to investigate the installation of the extractor systems without planning permission resulting in a retrospective planning application being submitted by CIEL Hotels Ltd the owners of the George and Dragon in Clifton along with a nearby pub and hotel in Askham.
Westmorland and Furness Council refused the retrospective application in October 2023.
With planning officers saying “In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the applicant has failed to demonstrate that the construction, odour control measures, noise levels, and running specifications of the kitchen extraction system will not result in noise, disturbance and odours affecting occupiers of surrounding dwellings resulting in harm to the amenity of occupiers of those dwellings.”
“The content of objections submitted from local residents strongly supports the conclusion that the extraction systems are inadequate in terms of removing odours. The applicant has not been able to demonstrate what, if any, alterations could be made to the system to ensure that it performs in such a way as to avoid harm to the amenity of these neighbouring dwellings and the character and appearance of the built environment. As such, the proposal is contrary to Policies COM1, ENV9 and DEV5 of the Eden Local Plan.”
The business since October has continued to use the extraction system resulting in complaints been filed with the Westmorland and Furness Council's environmental health department regarding odours, excessive noise, and operating times of the extraction system.
Westmorland and Furness Council served a planning enforcement notice on the George & Dragon in November due to the business continuing to operate the equipment and with the extraction system remaining in place with planning permission having been refused in October.
The company has now lodged a planning enforcement appeal with the Secretary of State planning inspectorate who is now gathering information and has invited interested parties to give comment.
The business has said its grounds for appeal are that planning permission should be granted for what is alleged in the notice. The steps required to comply with the requirements of the notice are excessive, and lesser steps would overcome the objections. The time given to comply with the notice is too short.
Local residents have said the extraction system is a visual eyesore and does not remove odours that impacts on their homes and has impacted enjoyment of their homes and gardens due to the noise and odours when the equipment is operating along with the visual impact of the system.
Westmorland and Furness Council has written to neighbouring properties and other interested parties to inform them of the planning inspectorate appeal giving details of how to comment on the appeal.
The business had submitted another planning application on the 22nd of February for the repositioning of door and erection of porch but these planning were withdrawn on Friday after questions around the application were raised with the council’s planning department.
The planning inspectorate has given a deadline of the 4th ofmApril for interested parties to give comment and the 25th of April for the business and local planning authority to provide final comments.
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