Appendix 2 - Objection Letter Mr Hayes
Perth and Kinross Council · 30 January 2024
Back to Licensing Committee — 30 January 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Civic Licensing From: john hayes Sent: 25 September 2023 19:45 To: CDS STL Subject: Re: Representation ref short term let 8 Craigower Crescent Pitlochry PH165HS Attachments: image001.jpg; To Whom it may concern No 8 Craigower.docx Hi Karen, Please see my letter attached, I have removed the photographs so hopefully it is now of a size that will be accepted by your email system. If you require the photographs down the road, please don't hesitate to ask and I shall send them on separately. Many thanks again, John Hayes On Mon, 25 Sept 2023 at 16:26, CDS STL <STL@pkc.gov.uk> wrote: Dear Mr. Hayes, Thank you for your email with attachments—can you please resend any pages beyond page 1 as the file does not appear to allow for the additional pages to be downloaded. We have noted your comments and photographs regarding the Public Notice of Information posted at these premises and will be conducting further enquiries. Kind regards, Karen The linked image cannot be displayed. The file may have been moved, renamed, or deleted. Verify that the link points to the correct file and location. Karen Engelberts Licensing Enforcement Officer Short Term Lets - Corporate and Legal Services Perth & Kinross Council 2 High Street Perth PH1 5PH Telephone: 01738 475195 (9am – 12pm, Monday through Friday except for public holidays)
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2 Web: Short Term Lets - Perth & Kinross Council (pkc.gov.uk) The information provided may not address your individual requirements, is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute any form of legal advice. It is recommended that you seek your own, independent legal advice. From: john hayes Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 3:07 PM To: CDS STL <STL@pkc.gov.uk> Subject: Representation ref short term let 8 Craigower Crescent Pitlochry PH165HS CAUTION: This email originated from an external organisation. Do not follow guidance, click links, or open attachments unless you have verified the sender and know the content is safe. Dear Sir/Madam, Please find attachment regarding our objection to the STL application for 8 Craigower Crescent Pitlochry. (I have three photographs included in the document so please let me know if you have any issue in viewing or downloading the attachment due to any maximum attachment size protocol with your email service) Should you require any further information or clarification, please don't hesitate to ask. Many thanks and kind regards, John Hayes 10 Craigower Crescent, Pitlochry To Whom it may concern No 8 Craigower.docx
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3 The information in this email is solely for the intended recipients. If you are not an intended recipient, you must not disclose, copy, or distribute its contents or use them in any way: please advise the sender immediately and delete this email. Perth & Kinross Council does not warrant that this email or any attachments are virus-free and does not accept any liability for any loss or damage resulting from any virus infection. Perth & Kinross Council may monitor or examine any emails received by its email system. The information contained in this email may not be the views of Perth & Kinross Council. It is possible for email to be falsified and the sender cannot be held responsible for the integrity of the information contained in it. General enquiries to Perth & Kinross Council should be made to enquiries@pkc.gov.uk or 01738 475000.
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24/08/23 To Whom it may concern, In response to the short term let planning applicaƟon for 8 Craigower Crescent, Pitlochry PH165HS, I wish to object to the granƟng of this licence for the reasons I hope to make obvious below. My name is John Hayes of 10 Craigower Crescent, Pitlochry PH165HS and I represent all who reside here. Firstly, I wish to make clear that I bear no animosity nor ill will to Miss Inceu, Florinia has been the most wonderful neighbour to have while she resided next door for the first two and a half years of us living here, furthermore, we have familial connecƟons that go back 10 years since we first moved to Pitlochry. I wish her very well. It came as some surprise to us that Miss Inceu had decided to let her property on AirBnB. As we recall, it was on a Thursday evening she announced she was leaving, and her first guests were arriving on that Saturday. Again, we hold no grudge with this, there was no obligaƟon for her to inform us of her decision at the Ɵme however, we felt a great sense of trepidaƟon, Stag and Hen parƟes we thought, but we were pleasantly surprised that, in the main, the guests were absolutely fine for the first few months but as with most things, Ɵme has a way of changing opinion. We make no complaints about any recurring noise, we have three young girls, it would be hypocriƟcal to do so. We have experienced some other concerns though. The innocent nuisance - the doorbell goes most weeks “Can you tell us how the heaƟng works? Can you tell me where the cutlery is? Where is the Post Office? How can I book Ɵckets for the theatre? - Not really much of a complaint this. UnveƩed new neighbours every two days, this one really does concern us having three young kids. It’s a 70 year old seƩled residenƟal street and is certainly not best suited to high turnaround tourist accommodaƟon. And then other stuff tends to creep in, cigareƩe buƩs that have come our way over the back wall for our toddler to find. Tradesmen staying next door treaƟng us to clouds of cannabis smoke. We recently had a domesƟc argument between guests that got so bad we considered calling the Police. And then there’s the parking……… It is criƟcal that you understand that this is a 1950’s crescent of council houses, we have one narrow street, ten houses. Vehicle ownership was sporadic back in the 50’s and certainly not abundant among council estates. It is simply not designed for the traffic it gets. Our street’s demographic today is mostly elderly, and we at number 10 buck that trend with our bunch of kids. Our road is the Southern access point for the second largest children’s playpark in our town, colloquially known as the “Ambi” park as the ambulance staƟon used be based here. The Ambulance staƟon has now been replaced with the Veterinary Surgery, an essenƟal local service given the rural locaƟon of where we live yet this already draws risk for all. Emergency care for working animals and livestock brings 4x4’s through daily - at pace. It is already a slalom with the long-term residents parking their vehicles but consider that recreaƟonal short term lets tend to bring mulƟple vehicles to an address with families understandably wanƟng to meet up. A memorable event for me was last December, the snow was thick on the ground and my “new” one day old neighbour had blocked my drive. I
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could not get my car out to take my kids to school, they arrive back at 4 pm and when I confront them to move their vehicle and they literally laugh at me and refuse to do so …. True, this type of thing is the excepƟon but nonetheless it does happen. I acknowledge that Miss Inceu is stringent on insisƟng that the driveway is used but unfortunately, it is impossible to enforce, vans, bigger vehicles etc, cars are just parked everywhere. It’s easy to say that they’re not, but we live here. They are. The kids simply can’t play on the street anymore. The bigger picture: Who benefits? Not I, but more importantly, not my community. It’s well documented that Pitlochry is overserviced with short term lets (proporƟonally far more than even Edinburgh). A great current example is that my barber has been evicted to the benefit of yet another absentee landlord who as seen a crowded marketplace and declared “ME TOO”, local services are being affected. There’s not a shop or hostelry in town that does not have a sign in the window that says “Staff wanted – Top rates paid” Great eh? – No actually. These costs are all passed on and prices have gone so high from the tourist dollar that the locals cannot afford to use these local services. WaiƟng staff and hotel staff are now bussed in from Dundee and SƟrling due to a complete lack of housing stock because of short term lets, there’s even rumours of another AirB&B happening on our street????? Pitlochry at the last census had a populaƟon of a mere 2880 people, this community is almost at breaking point due to this phenomenon. The granƟng of more short term let licences is not the answer. In Conclusion – I’m not the man ranƟng “not on my doorstep” ……. I’ve been that man on the doorstep for the last twelve months and the bad outweighs the good. I live here, others don’t. Many thanks for taking the Ɵme to read this Many kind regards, John, Joan, Eva, Orla & Flora Hayes