Severely ill couple forced to sell ‘dream home’ to support town’s tourism

A couple aged 68 and 70 who have been diagnosed with cancer and Parkinson’s disease are being forced to sell their seaside home in Great Yarmouth in what they have described as a “living nightmare”.

Ann and Stephen Frew bought the five-bedroom property on Trafalgar Road in December 2021, envisioning moving their extended family in as caretakers and planning refurbishments of the kitchen and bathroom areas to improve accessibility and turn it into their “dream home”.

Just months after shelling out £40,000 on renovations, however, the couple received an enforcement notice from the council, saying they didn’t have permission to use the building – which previously functioned as the Merivon Guesthouse – in a residential capacity.

The note cited the property’s inclusion in the borough’s GY6 policy, restricting the change-of-use from tourist accommodation to private dwellings in a bid to protect the local holidaymaker-fuelled economy.

Mr and Mrs Frew submitted a retrospective planning application to change the building’s use to residential, but it was refused by the council on the grounds of an “unjustified” loss of tourist provision. An appeal to the planning inspectorate was dismissed on the same basis and the house has been put on the market for £250,000 as a business venture.

The couple told the Eastern Daily Press they have been living “in absolute limbo” since receiving the notice. Mrs Frew said: “We were completely blindsided. The enforcement notice threw our world and what we wanted to do completely.

“During the conveyancing process, the solicitors went through everything they should have done but the searches had nothing about a planning restriction on the property.”

However, one neighbour wrote to the council alleging that Mr and Mrs Frew had known about its history as a guesthouse because they “had to remove all its furniture and contents before moving in”. They said: “The Merivon was a thriving business under the ownership of Jane Reynolds for nearly 20 years. When she sold it to the current owners, they made it very clear that they had no intention of running a business and that it would be a private dwelling.”

The neighbour also backed the local authority’s position, writing: “Trafalgar Road is the showcase street in Great Yarmouth for B&Bs, it is used in promotional advertising because of the uniqueness, and it needs to stay that way.”

Mrs Frew questioned the viability of these businesses, however, by pointing to four other guesthouses on the street that are also currently on the market. She said: “The council says each each guesthouse generates £87,000 per year into the local economy. But if this is such a flourishing business, why are they all up for sale?”

A spokesperson for Great Yarmouth Borough Council told the EDP that the policy protecting tourist accommodation from change-of-use has “been in place for some time” and is an “effective way to protect the vital tourism trade for the local economy”.

According to the local authority, tourism pumps £648 million into the area each year and provides 23% of all jobs.