A JEDBURGH couple have taken their fight to convert a bed and breakfast into a family home to the Scottish Government. 

Tom and Sarah Watters, the owners of Glenacre Bed and Breakfast on the A68, applied to Scottish Borders Council for a certificate of lawful use, as they say their former B&B has been used solely as a family home for the last four years. 

However, council planners refused the application as they say there is evidence the property has been used as a guesthouse since 2014. 

Now, the Watters have appealed to the Scottish Government’s planning and environmental appeals department (DPEA), asking them to overrule Scottish Borders Council. 

An appeal statement, lodged by Peebles-based planning consultants Ericht, reads: “There has been no use as a guest house/ B&B since the end of December 2013 and there has been no enforcement action taken by Scottish Borders Council in the period. 

“The use of the property known as Glenacre as a dwellinghouse is lawful. 

“No enforcement action may be taken in respect of the failure to comply because the four year time period for enforcement action to be taken has expired.”

One of the council’s main points of contention is that the Watters have submitted tax returns which list their B&B business over the last few years, but the couple maintain this was an administrative error: “Despite the administrative mistake made by the accountant there is nothing in the tax returns submitted to the council to indicate that Glenacre was being operated as a B&B during any of the period in which the planning authority asserts it to have been. 

“There is no logic in the officers’ conclusion that the tax returns show an operating B&B business: they simply do not. An incorrect and unreasonable interpretation appears to have been made.”

Scottish Borders Council planning officials also say that a website promoting Glenacre as a B&B was accessible during the four year period, and that signage advertising the location of the B&B was still present during a 2016 visit by officers. 

The council’s own statement to the DPEA reads: “Photos which were taken 956 days after the date on which the appellant claims to have ceased trading as a B&B show that at that date, the property was furnished with signage on the road and gable of the property advertising the business and its Visit Scotland accreditation together with signposting for customer parking which would suggest that a B&B business was operating at that date. 

“As a result of that signage, the officer had no reason to believe that the property was operating as anything but a B&B. Had the signage been left on and within the curtilage of the property for a matter of months before being taken down, that would be understandable, but for it to remain after four years of the apparent cessation of the business is inconceivable.

“It would be reasonable to assume that the appellant would have removed the Glenacre property from their website in order to avoid the inconvenience of telephone calls to their home regarding a business which was no longer taking guests. 

“The existence of the website together with the signage remaining on the property would, taken together, suggest the operation of a B&B business at Glenacre to any reasonable person.”

A DPEA reporter, acting on behalf of Scottish Ministers, will now deliberate on the proposals before making a decision, which is due at the end of August.