A businesswoman is frustrated at how she is unable to operate her personal training studio from a back garden summer house after her planning application was refused at appeal.

Personal trainer Christine Barker, Baldrine, explained how Garff Commissioners launched the appeal after a neighbour petitioned the planning inspector in objection to Ms Barker’s retrospective planning application [20/00770/C] to use the summer house for her PT business, C-Fit.

The application, which was approved in November 2020, specified a maximum of three clients a day would be trained and noise would be kept to a minimum.

The neighbour’s main concerns were around noise levels generated by one-on-one coaching sessions, and increased vehicular traffic to Ms Barker’s house.

In a 21-page document compiled by the neighbour which was sent to the planning inspector objecting to C-Fit’s businesses activities (which had been operating since January 2020), the neighbour cited activities like jogging on the spot which generated pounding noise on the wooden floor of the summer house, describing it as ’off-the-shelf’ and not soundproofed (though Ms Barker says she was told she did not need soundproofing), and shouted motivational instructions.

The neighbour summarised that the use of the summer house as a PT business had caused ’unpleasantness, increased stress and anxiety’.

However, planning officers had been unable to visit the site over lockdown and instead made a decision based on photographic evidence.

Ms Barker explained that after Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot (who has final say on planning matters) this month agreed with the planning officer’s recommendation to allow the appeal and reverse the approval of Ms Barker’s original application, she would now have to close her business at her home.

However, she said that after this decision she invited the commissioners to the house to inspect it, and they allegedly agreed that had they seen the site in the first place, they would not have made the appeal.

Ms Barker revealed she now has no job, and that she has invested £8,000 in gym equipment for the summer house. She has launched an online petition with more than 600 signatures in support of calling on Garff Commissioners to reassess the matter.