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17
Jan
Aristocrats drop South Stainley wedding venue plans due to council demands
The Viscount and Viscountess Mountgarret have dropped plans to officially turn some of their land at South Stainley, between Harrogate and Ripon, into a wedding venue.
The couple have run their company, Cowparsley Weddings and Events, from Stainley House – their home just south of the village – since 2019.
In 2022, they applied for permission to change the use of land to the south-west of their house from agricultural to D2, which denotes entertainment and leisure purposes.
The application envisaged holding six to eight events per year in a marquee that would have remained pitched on the land for the summer season. Each event would have a maximum capacity of 150 guests.
Cowparsley has already held such events on the site in accordance with planning guidelines.
But the couple have now withdrawn the application because, according to Lady Mountgarret, they “could not see any way forward to continue trading”.
In an email sent to North Yorkshire Council on Tuesday (January 14), Lady Mountgarret writes:
This was due to the ongoing demands from the council of spending more and more money to fulfil requirements to make our planning application acceptable, from highway surveys to noise assessments etc.
Already we have spent in excess of [amount redacted]. All for 6-8 events a year and still without any sign that the application would be approved.
She says the recommended noise mitigation measures would be costly, making them unviable, and points out that although the noise assessment deemed Cowparsley to be operating “outside government guidelines”, the parish council and the Mountgarrets’ neighbours are largely supportive of their plans.
In a comment submitted to the council’s planning portal, local resident Mark Houseman says:
We must support and encourage rural businesses to diversify income streams which then employs local people.
In another, Rachel Adeleke says:
Having lived in close proximity to the site for a year, we have never had any issue with hearing noise from the marquee or any other disruption associated with events being held there.
She adds:
It's important that people are able to make a living and be entrepreneurial in the countryside to ensure that it continues to be a populace and vibrant place to live.
However, one of the supportive comments came from neighbour David Fawcus, who is believed to be Lady Mountgarret's father, and the application also attracted some objections. One, from local resident Vernon Adams, reads:
I am horrified that the council would even consider this venture. The village is in a lovely setting, and the impact would be horrendous with traffic, and with no control on wedding arrangements is unbelievable.
The noise levels through the day, and late into the night do no bear thinking about. Surely common sense says this venture is wrong.
This was the second application the Mountgarrets have made. They withdrew the first, filed in 2019, in order to carry out further studies and acquire additional information.
In Tuesday’s letter, Lady Mountgarret writes of the most recent application withdrawal:
It is very sad, as a number of local and wider Yorkshire suppliers have expressed disappointment as it brought business their way, but that would appear to no longer be relevant.
Viscount Mountgarret is a title created in the peerage of Ireland in 1550. The current Viscount succeeded to the title in 2004.
The family seat was historically Nidd Hall, but it now Stainley House, which the 14th Viscount built in 1906 as a dower house for his mother. The Mountgarret estate includes some of the country's best regarded grouse moors.
The Stray Ferret has contacted Cowparsley Weddings and Events for comment.
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