Government inspector orders York hotel owner to pull down Covid dining pods he built in garden

Simon Cowton, owner of the St George’s Hotel, appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after City of York Council issued him with an enforcement notice which told him to remove the eight glasshouses.

The purpose of the heated pods was to “safeguard existing jobs, protect guests, attract new visitors to York and the area and to respond in a creative way to the extreme challenges posed by Covid-19”, according to the initial planning application.

But the hotel in St George’s Place is in a conservation area and planning inspector Mark Harbottle said they caused harm to the area, despite them being in the back garden and not visible from the street.

He wrote: “The greenhouses and their associated groundworks and service infrastructure do not sustain or enhance the significance of the conservation area, are unsympathetic to the surrounding built environment and do not add to the overall quality of the area.

“They fail to enhance, respect and complement the historic arrangement of street blocks, plots and buildings.”

Neighbours also raised concerns about noise when the application was made.

Mr Harbottle said: “The activity associated with use of the greenhouses for dining has the potential to harm the living conditions of people nearby, particularly in terms of noise.”

A plan was proposed whereby the hotel would remove the three pods nearest to the northern boundary but the inspector said this would still result in “unacceptable harm to the living conditions of close neighbours.”

Mr Harbottle discounted the economic benefit of the pods to the hotel.

He said: “The Covid-19 guidelines have changed since the appeal was made and social distancing is no longer required by Government.”

Mr Cowton could not be reached for comment.

He told the York Press in January: “It’s going to be a beautiful facility for the community, where people can have dinner in warm, beautiful, safe surroundings where you can have the illusion that life is back to normal. People are going to be nervous about going out for some time to come and a lot of people are not going to want to go into town.”