York hotel owner told to take down COVID dining pods
A health inspector backed recommendations from York City Council
A hotel owner in York has been ordered to take down specifically-designed Covid pods in a planning row with York City Council.
Eight glasshouses were set up in the garden of the St. George's Hotel in York to protect diners against catching the virus.
But an enforcement order issued from the City of York Council has meant the hotel must dismantle the greenhouses.
Planning inspectors were brought into the hotel to investigate the hotel, which lies within a conservation area.
After the inspection, the planning surveyors believed that the pods caused harm to the area, despite being in the back garden of the hotel and not visible from the street.
Inspector Mark Harbottle said: "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."
Mr Harbottle also discounted the economic benefits of the pods to the hotel and the community, saying that neighbours had also raised concerns about the effect of the greenhouses.
The owner of the hotel, Simon Cowton, was unavailable for comment on the case.
When the pods were erected, Mr Cowton said in January that they would 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."