Tuesday November 18th 2025
The top floor flat of beach side building in Musselburgh was refused planning permission to carry on operating as a short term holiday
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
An Airbnb operator who was accused by neighbours of operating a ‘party flat’ has lost his appeal against enforcement action ordering it to stop being used as a short term let.
Alan Montgomery appealed to Scottish Ministers to step in after East Lothian Council issued the enforcement order claiming it was issued late and his case had not been dealt with properly.
Neighbours living in the same block as the top floor holiday flat on Musselburgh’s Edinburgh Road wrote to Scottish Ministers raising concerns over its continued use claiming guests were ‘increasingly itinerant males’ with allegations of behaviour including drug use, drinking and one tenant ‘flying a drone from their bedroom over the back gardens’.
They said: “This situation has now been ongoing for over three years and in that time we have experienced a whole host of problems from guests.”
Previous complaints about the flat included claims at a recent licensing meeting that it was used as a ‘party flat’ with one residents saying guests had sex so vigorously in the flat on one occasion that the clock on the kitchen wall in the property downstairs fell to the ground.
Mr Montgomery at the time dismissed the claims as ‘ridiculous’.
The flat was granted a licence to operate but Mr Montgomery had been refused a Certificate of Lawfulness to use the flat as a short term let before being refused planning permission and losing an appeal to Scottish Ministers.
Short term let operators require both planning consent and a licence under current legislation.
East Lothian Council then issued an enforcement order demanding the flat stopped being rented out as a short term let, which Mr Montgomery again took to Scottish Ministers.
He said the council letter notifying him that he had lost his appeal to the review body was not issued for 35 days when it should have been sent out within three weeks.
He says: “I believe this is in breach of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) act 1997 (as Amended) as it is out with the allotted time frame.”
As well as a missed deadline Mr Montgomery also claims that officers should have considered the property in the same way as a bed and breakfast is considered as a Class 9 building – saying it’s use is the same.
However in a ruling issued this week, the Scottish Government Reporter dismissed his appeal saying it was not the right forum to address either of his claims.
And he said of the claim that the property should be treated as a bed and breakfast “Given that the property is a flat, Class 9 is irrelevant.”
He said: “The enforcement appeal is not the correct platform to obtain any redress for any alleged decision-making outwith the statutory timeframe.”
Dismissing the appeal the Reporter said the applicant had provided no evidence to support any claim the enforcement order was not correct and a breach had not taken place.
He said: “I have considered all of the other matters raised, but there are none which would lead me to alter my conclusion that the enforcement notice should be upheld.
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