‘We can’t sleep or open windows,’ say neighbours fighting to shut down campsite after being plagued by sex noises
NEIGHBOURS of a campsite plagued by sex noises and rowdy campers are fighting to close it.
Secret Garden Glamping in Lymington, Hants, is an “exclusive” glampsite that offers a luxury version of camping for families or a romantic break for couples.
Owner Liz Feay has sought official planning permission to regularise usage of her back garden as a glamping site for five months of the year.
But, neighbours have the application in their cross hairs as they say they are forced to spend those months listening to parties, rows, sex, and karaoke.
Mel Sims lives directly behind the garden and said she could hear campers having sex, rowing when drunk, and even listen in to their private conversations.
When she bought her three bed semi-detached house in December 2022 – she “had no idea” of the glampsite operating behind her house.
The 51-year-old said: “I probably should have been warned.
“I didn’t think anything of it in December but as summer started I heard noises out there.
“This shed here backs onto the yurt so ultimately when it’s the summertime, if you are sat here then you can hear all the conversations – you can hear sex in the tent.
“There’s rows when they are all a bit drunk.”
But she said there is no way of complaining because she couldn’t contact the people on the other side of her high fence.
She added: “We don’t need any more campsites in the New Forest.
“We are thick with campsites – I don’t need one in my garden.”
Feay said she hadn’t received any complaints in the four years of operation, but not her neighbours are orgnaising to complain together.
She said she gets complaints whenever anybody stays in the tents – including her and her children and none of them had ever come to her personally despite neighbours having her contact details.
Neighbours, she said, had only begun complaining over the summer when another house had been playing loud music.
Feay insisted those initial complaints were misdirected at her glampsite, but other neighbours followed as the area communicates through social media.
She said: “I feel like the whole of [the street] have ganged up on me.”
When asked about the loud sex, Feay said she wasn’t aware of it.
“I just think that’s completely ridiculous, I think it was one occasion.
“I think it’s a lot of lies and they just want me to stop doing it basically.”
According to its website, Secret Garden Glamping has been running for four years and provides spaces for guests to “rest, relax and play in”.
The site in the New Forest consists of two five metre tents that have been set up behind a three bed semi-detached house in a residential area of Lymington
But, following the complaints council officials are now investigating.
Sims also wrote an objection, she said: “I live directly behind this garden and see the tent top from my windows. I bought this house last year, thinking it was in a quiet cul de sac.
“That is until people come to stay there……The noise from this garden/field in the summer is too much often past midnight.
“There is music, loud chat, sex in the thin tents we all awkwardly hear and swearing. I do not want to back onto a clamping or campsite.”
Another neighbour said: “As this is a glamp site specifically targeted at holidaying guests, socialising continues through the working week, disturbing sleep for myself, my wife and our son who’s bedroom is at the back of the house.
There is music, loud chat, sex in the thin tents we all awkwardly hear
Neighbour
“Most upsetting perhaps is that on several occasions we have had to close the window to block out the sound of a couple engaging in acts of a sexual nature, which the fabric walls of a tent clearly did not, and do not contain.
“A karaoke machine was used top volume at 6am by a child yelling into the microphone.”
While a third neighbour said she is also forced to listen to “people having sexual intercourse” which is “far beyond what one would expect in a residential family neighbourhood”.
Feay applied to the New Forest District Council for full planning permission of the glamping business for five months of the year.
In a covering letter to NFDC, her planning agent said the application was submitted after enforcement enquiries were made about the business last year.
Faey said she didn’t know she needed planning permission initially, but said she is willing to make noise management changes to get permission now.
She said: “This is my job and my dream and I’ve tried to do it sympathetically and not upset anyone.”
According to the website, guests can book to stay in one of the two tents named ‘Flora’ and ‘Belle’ from May to September.
On Booking.Com, a two night stay in one of the ‘luxury’ tents is priced at £206 and previous guests have described it as a “little gem in the heart of Lymington”, “exceptional”, and a “perfect gateway weekend”.
Members of the Lymington and Pennington Town Council planning committee have now voted against Ms Feay’s application and recommended that NFDC reject it.
NFDC is expected to make a decision on the application before 6th March.
