Alert over growth of holiday homes in Dales

The problem has now grown so severe young people are leaving the Dales in record numbers and rural experts warn parts of the national park could be abandoned forever.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority says in Arkengarthdale 48 per cent of all houses are now holiday homes, while about two thirds of the local population are elderly.

Swaledale and Wensleydale are also said to be particularly suffering while villages like Gunnerside and Langthwaite are empty outside of tourist season.

Despite efforts by the authority to improve the situation, residents say that when houses become available they are quickly snapped up as holiday homes.

It is feared the problem will start to have a serious effect on businesses and education throughout the Dales.

Coun John Blackie, a member of the Yorkshire Dales planning authority, said: "There is an extreme need for affordable housing for local needs in the Dales and despite attempts to solve it, the problem is getting worse.

"People born and bred here are being pushed out of their own communities by high house prices.

"The outlook for young people here is very bleak. There is nowhere for them to live so they leave the Dales and never come back.

"This is a problem right across the Dales. Shops are shutting and many schools have been forced to merge to keep going.

"The problem snowballs to all areas of the community. Gradually in front of your own eyes villages are collapsing and that is a real concern.

"We need to stop the rot and the relentless drift away from our deeply rural areas by young families."

In 2005 the National Park Authority introduced a ban on new homes in the Dales being sold to outsiders, so local people could afford homes in their own area.

The ban means almost all new properties and barn conversions are subject to restrictions, aimed at keeping away the second-home buyers who have forced up prices in the Dales.

But the authority admits the problem has continued.

Peter Stockton, strategic planning officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, said: "We can only influence new development. We have no control over the existing sites which is 99.9 per cent of housing in the Dales.

"From a bleak perspective you could say whatever we do there is always going to be a shortfall of affordable housing – the problem may never resolve itself.

"This problem goes right to the heart of communities. Sustainability is a big issue and is a worry for all of us.

"In 2005 we started using a new set of planning principles and started applying a local occupancy restriction on any new housing applications but this hasn't achieved as much as we would have liked to achieve.

"The problem was creeping back in and we weren't coping with it fast enough.

"We have been trying to push this on to the next stage and be more proactive to go out and identify land."

At the end of this month the National Park Authority will reveal a list of 37 sites on the edge of towns and villages where it hopes to build 240 houses for local people, 120 of which are affordable accommodation. The sites will go for public consultation in April.

Last week the Government's rural advocate, Dr Stuart Burgess, told the Prime Minister that the fabric of rural communities is being damaged by an exodus of people in their 20s, forced out by a lack of jobs and affordable housing.

'Country girl' and partner refused chance to create home in family barn

CASE STUDY 1

Charlotte Stubbs, 22, is born and bred in Arkengarthdale.

She lives with her boyfriend, Duncan Stocks, 23, in a run-down rented cottage in

Booze, near Langthwaite, and want to move out, but due to a lack of affordable accommodation may have to leave the Dales.

Earlier this week they had a planning application to convert a family-owned barn into a house – the only type of accommodation they could afford– rejected by a Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority planning committee.

Charlotte, a secretary at an electrician firm, said: "I have lived here all my life, I'm a country girl at heart and don't want to live anywhere else.

"But we need our own property and if it continues like this we will have to move out of the area.

"Where we are living at the moment is damp and draughty but it's the cheapest we could find and we can't afford to live anywhere else.

"The houses around here are far too expensive and there isn't anywhere to go so people do just move out.

"Most of my friends still live at home with their parents or have moved out of the area.

"Some of my cousins have just moved to Darlington to live.

"It is mainly holiday homes here, growing up we were the only children around and that is getting worse.

"I do enjoy living here but the Dales cannot survive just on holiday homes, residents here need a place to live."

The National Park Authority says despite a lack of affordable housing in the area, it rejected the proposed barn conversion as the building was outside of the existing boundary conversion limit for Langthwaite and did not meet planning requirements.

Holiday cottages killing trade for pub couple as local work dries up

CASE STUDY 2

Paula Leason, 38, and partner Patrick Maunder, 42, are joint licensees of the King's Head pub in Gunnerside, Swaledale.

She said: "We have started closing the pub on Mondays and Tuesdays because we are just not taking any money.

"We are not taking any wages from the business at the moment but we are hoping this year it will not be in such a dire state.

"If there was no summer season coming up then we would definitely have to shut the pub for good.

"We took over the pub at the end of last August and in that time a couple of houses have been sold for holiday cottages. Over the last few years 10 to 15 people have died, and their houses have all been bought up as holiday cottages.

"People say that all the tourists must be good for business but the majority that stay in the village bring all of their own food and drink with them and don't contribute to the economy.

"House prices are bad but there is no work in the Dales as well so people have to leave.

"People in the village say this year has been particularly hard."