Furious neighbours try and shut down New Forest glamping site over campers having noisy sex

A luxury glampsite that offers a “romantic escape” for couples in an upmarket country town is under threat of closure after neighbours complained they are forced to spend five months of the year listening to parties, rows, sex, and karaoke.

One nearby resident wrote to the local authority protesting that they had had to listen to “deluded” renditions of 1980s hit “Islands in the Stream”, by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, “over and over”.

Another said she has had to “awkwardly” hear people having “sex in the thin tents” pitched in the back garden of a house in Lymington, in Hampshire’s New Forest.

The posh Secret Garden Glamping site consists of two five-metre tents that have been set up behind a three-bed semi-detached house in a residential area of the town.

According to its website, it has been running for four years and provides spaces for guests to “rest, relax and play in”.

But following complaints from neighbours – some of whom have made recordings of loud dance music coming from the garden – council officials started to investigate.

The owner of the site, Liz Feay, sought official planning permission for the “use of part of garden as a glamping site for five months a year”. But, following a planning meeting held earlier this month – described by one neighbour to show “local democracy in action” – her application was recommended for refusal and the site is now at risk of closure.

Secret Garden Glamping claims to provide glampers with a “taste of life’s simple pleasures” and a “home-away-from-home during your holiday in the New Forest”.

But nearby residents are less than seduced by the experience.

Mel Sims lives directly behind the garden of the £405,000 property and when the 51-year-old bought her house in December 2022, she “had no idea” of the glampsite operating behind her house.

The ADHD coach 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.”

Ms Sims said when she and her 13-year-old daughter are sat outside they can hear “private conversations” and noise but said there is no way of complaining because “how do you contact someone over there?”

The mother 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.

“There’s rows when they are all a bit drunk.”

Ms Sims said the website advertised the glampsite as “exclusive” but said it is not – as she can “hear all of their conversations”.

Last month, Ms Feay applied to the New Forest District Council (NFDC) for full planning permission for the glamping business.

In a cover letter to NFDC, her planning agent said the application was submitted after “enforcement enquiries” were made about the business last year.

After the initial application was made, residents took to the online planning portal to voice their objections to the site. In her objection, Ms Sims wrote: “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.”

One neighbour, Daniel Wells, 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 whose bedroom is at the back of the house.

“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.

“There was a karaoke machine there for a time and on one notable sunny afternoon whilst trying to enjoy our garden with friends, we had to instead listen to a couple blaring out ‘Islands in the Stream’ over and over, deluded in thinking they were Dolly and Kenny.

“This same karaoke machine was used top volume at 6am by a child yelling into the microphone.”

Another neighbour, Stephanie Glasspool, 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”.

Andy and Gillian Doel spoke of their frustration and said during the summer they get ash in their garden from the campfires.

Mr Doel, 58, said: “We camp. Most campsites have rules about noise. But, they are people from London that have never camped.

“To me, it’s just an unreasonable, unneighbourly thing to do.”

Mr Doel said he fears if the planning approval is accepted, other houses with big gardens will also do the same.

He said: “Where does it stop with Lymington? Look at all the gardens that could have glampsites – it’s madness.

“How many houses in Lymington are going to do the same?”

The retired chemical engineer said in the summer he hears “thunka, thunka, thunka” from the bass of the music played by guests.

“If a neighbour was making noise, I wouldn’t think anything of it,” he said.

“After a week, of that, you would say something to your neighbour and expect them to do something about it. If they do it for a year... it’s just not heard of.

“We’re not just trying to be nimby. Next door has been sold to a developer and we need more houses. I’m not against things being built but you do need to be neighbourly and considerate.”

His wife, also a former chemical engineer, said: “It looks great, if it was a glampsite in the middle of nowhere then that would be great.

“But, we have five months of it.”

The 58-year-old added: “Last summer was the tipping point because there was a lot more [guests] and a lot more antisocial behaviour.”

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 decide on the application before 6 March.

Ms Feay – who says she is a “born and bred New Forest girl” with a “genuine love for the area, and the people who live here” – declined to comment.