Neighbours of No 2 West Layton Manor, which is close to the A66 and Ravensworth, say despite having raised concerns over the unauthorised development at a Richmondshire Council licensing meeting, the enterprise has been allowed to continue, causing “stress and anxiety”.

The comments follow the property’s owner Richard Sharpe applying for restrospective permission to use a section of the extensive property, which was built in the 1870s by mining tycoon John Easton, as a hotel.

The mansion is divided into four separate properties, including The Coach House where Mr Sharpe himself lives.

The documents state while the six-bedroom hotel, which has features such as an honesty bar, has received “exceptional” ratings from guests, the planning status of the property pre-2000 is unclear from a review of the council’s online planning register.

However, the documents state a hotel operated in the building between 1984 and 2000, and since 2015 the property has been used as a boutique hotel, while other parts of the building have remained as residential.

They state the hotel is at a gateway to the Yorkshire Dales and has “proven to be very popular with its guests”. If the proposal is approved it would result in the retention of five jobs, the papers state.

The application states: “The accommodation, which has operated in its present guise as a boutique hotel for over seven years, contributes to the provision of high-quality tourist and business accommodation stock in the north Richmondshire sub-area.

“It is also notable that the licensed bar has operated with full oversight from Richmondshire Council Licensing Department for the past seven years without issue or complaint.”

The proposal follows the council’s Retail, Leisure and Town Centre Study in 2019, which highlighted a gap in the provision of modern, accredited and serviced hotel stock in Richmondshire, with just 5.5 per cent of all visitors using serviced accommodation.

The application states the proposal offers an opportunity to continue to significantly boost the tourist economy, a key economic sector in Richmondshire, by improving the provision of high quality, accredited accommodation stock in the Richmond area.

However, in an objection to the plan, neighbours have claimed the business has steadily expanded and upgraded since being bought and changed into a hotel, bolstered by “a massive publicity campaign”.

They said hotel guests and deliveries have regularly caused late night and early morning disturbances.

Richard Watson, who has lived in the neighbouring property since 2011, said: “We feel changing to a boutique hotel will only exacerbate these problems and with increased guests staying day and night this will only increase the stress and anxiety for our children and disrupt and diminish the quality of our lifestyle.”

Mr Watson said No 2 was residential when they were moved in, but was sold in 2016 and the new owners asked if they would mind them having guests stay on the top floor. It eventually became a B&B and subsequent owners continued to run it as a business.

Mr Watson said that because the hotel was advertised simply as West Layton Manor rather than No 2 West Layton Manor, there had been several postal mix-ups, including an occasion when a parcel for the family was wrongly delivered to the hotel and his daughter found it had been opened and books they had ordered had been arranged on tables for guests to read.

West Layton Manor: Neighbours complain about boutique B&B at Yorkshire country house that has been operating without planning permission since 2015