Man furious after council orders him to turn £1m seafront home back into a guesthouse

A man is furious after his local council ordered him to turn his £1m seafront home back into a guesthouse because the town 'does not have enough hotels for tourists'.

Mark Hobbs transformed The Bay Guest House in Southend, Essex, into a family home four years ago.

He claimed the four-bed B&B was no longer taking customers and spent thousands renovating the property on the town's Eastern Esplanade - a prime location in one of the country's most popular seaside tourist destinations.

But Southend Council has now refused retrospective plans for it to be used as a home because of 'insufficient' evidence it was no longer financially viable.

Mr Hobbs is outraged and has appealed the decision but locals are backing the council. 

They believe Southend will 'die' if other hoteliers are allowed to do the same thing. 

One told MailOnline: 'Mark Hobbs has not covered himself in glory from start to finish. He thinks he can do what he wants without any consequences.

'It's created a real issue in the area. He thinks it is one rule for him and one rule for everyone else. Well, it's not. The council has been clear it should be a guest house.'

Another hotelier, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: 'If everyone took that view, they'd be no hotels in the area, would there? Then there would be no tourist economy.

'That is what keeps Southend going. It's finished without it. It has a lot going for it at the moment. Business is very busy. We are fully booked up most of the summer.

'The idea you have a lovely location on the seafront and cannot make it work as a hotel is ludicrous.'

Pauline Oakwood, 63, who has lived in Southend all her life, said it was 'upsetting'.

The retired personal assistant said: 'I don't understand why they would think that should be allowed to happen.

'Southend needs as much tourism as it can get. If they don't want to run it as a hotel, fine, let someone else take over.'

Thorpe independent councillor, Martin Terry, said the protection of bed and breakfasts in the area is a 'matter of principle' and that Southend needs them to facilitate its growth.

He told the Southend Echo: 'The council does have a policy around hotels and establishments for visitors when they visit the city, we have a policy to protect that side of our economy.

'It is more a matter of principle, once we have set a precedent. We have a small bed and breakfast quarter around there, it is a lovely setting that is very popular and now the airport is busy again, it is an exercise where we can promote Southend.'

Mr Terry added that he is aware a 'great number of people' coming to stay in the area, who stay in similar guest houses and then spend money in the area.

'We don't want to set a precedent. The council wouldn't want to see anything damaging it, as the airport is back,' he said.

'The bottom line is that the policy is there for a reason and as it has gone to appeal and we have that clear policy, it will be interesting to see what the planning inspectorate recommends.'

Back in April, Mr Hobbs told the publication: 'This is an utter joke, we have made the house beautiful where before it was a derelict guest house and we have lived here for four years.

'We haven't taken any guests since Covid, previously I ran the guest house to hold students coming over to my training business, but we changed to online training during Covid and we didn't want to lose the building, so we moved in.

'We spent a million on the house and people comment on how beautiful it is. We simply don't have the time to run a guest house and we will be appealing this. We refuse to move out.

'We proved to the council the guest house was financially unsustainable, it had been marketed through Expedia and AirBnB and could not work.

'This has put a massive strain on us, it feels like we are losing our home. If we lose the appeal, we would be forced to sell and it would be empty as well as losing me a lot of money.'

When approached by MailOnline this week, Mr Hobbs refused to comment further.