AN award-winning restaurant has been told it has a “moral” responsibility to build a better relationship with its neighbours after it was granted planning permission this week.
The Raby Hunt Inn, in Summerhouse, the county’s only two-starred Michelin restaurant, has been the centre of a fierce row with village residents who say their lives have been made a “misery” by the amount of cars parking in the village and noise from the restaurant.
A council meeting to discuss a planning application to turn an adjoining single-storey cottage into additional guest bedrooms, a wine store and staff facilities, was deferred last month to enable members of Darlington Borough Council’s planning committee to make a site visit following 11 objections from residents.
Russell Close, father of chef James Close, who purchased the inn in 2009, made a statement to the planning committee. He said the creation of the extra bedrooms would not increase the number of covers the restaurant offers and was simply to “improve the dining experience for customers” .
Mr Close said: “The bedrooms are sold as a package to diners. They will not be sold otherwise.
A great number of our customers come to the Raby Hunt and visit other locations and this brings a lot of money to the area.”
Mr Close added on one occasion he had to ring the police when a resident became aggressive towards one of his guests. In the past an attempt was made to alleviate the parking problem in the village – the restaurant had been invited to use the village hall car park for £50 per week to cover additional insurance charges and the cost of installing of CCTV cameras. However, this was rejected.
Resident Andrew Way, a solicitor, said: “Summerhouse is a small, intimate hamlet where the big problem is parking. There were 17 cars parked when the Raby Hunt wasn’t even open. We don’t wish to damage it [Raby Hunt]. It is creating many problems to residents and we feel that this would cause a problem in the future.”
Basil Stonehouse, a resident and retired headteacher, said the police had once been called, claiming Mr Close (Snr) had become aggressive. He added at times they were unable to park in front of their own property.
He added that people had also been parking on the shared driveway.
Chief planning officer Dave Coates said: “The original village was not designed with motor vehicles in mind and if you can get staff to use the village hall car park and continue mediation with the residents, this mediation would help the relationship between and the villagers.”
Chairman Cllr Paul Baldwin said: “The Raby Hunt is an internationally recognised restaurant and to get that you need to work hard, but you need to work with your neighbours to build a better relationship as a moral issue to sort out the parking problem.”
The council granted permission for the changes to be made, though Mr Coates pointed out the conditions to impose a time restriction for using a storeroom, installation of a gate to a single space parking area and restricting use of the bedrooms could be overturned on appeal.
Resident Yvonne Stonehouse said the planning conditions will help limit the noise nuisance for neighbours and hopes the owners will continue working with the Village Hall Association to find a solution to the parking issues.
