Husband and spouse behind pole dance studio spark fury from neighbours over ‘nightmare’ plans to increase enterprise hours

A husband and wife are embroiled in a planning row with their neighbours over proposals to extend the commercial hours of their back-garden pole dancing studio.

Neighbours claim that extending the opening hours for Be In The Sky studio, run by Diego Altamirano, 48, and Beike Himestra, 45, in Southampton, Hampshire, will lead to a parking ‘nightmare’ and excessive noise. 

Classes are currently run on weekdays from 5.30pm to 9pm in an outbuilding in the couple’s back garden – but they want to extend the hours starting from 9.15am on weekdays and from 10am to 6pm on weekends. 

The married couple also want to change the usage of the building from a maximum of eight clients to 10 for yoga and theatre classes.

But local residents have raised concerns over the extended business hours – warning it is inappropriate to have an influx of customers on their small residential street.

They say it will have an adverse impact on parking and highway safety as well as noise disturbance. 

Terry Adams, 80, who has lived on the same road for more than 45 years, said: ‘It should not be a gym. This is a private residential street. They seem to be always doing something.

‘The problem here is that you get no parking. The council, in their wisdom, have raised the price of a parking permit to £45 a year and they only allow visitors for four hours, so you don’t get what you pay for and people can’t come over to visit.

‘Because of the gym, if we go out for the day and come home in the evening there’s nowhere to park. Is that fair?

‘We only have a place today because we got back early. What we’re going to have to do, which isn’t good, is knock down our garden wall and turn our front yard into a parking space.

‘I’ve lived here since 1980 and I’ve seen a real downturn in the road. They’re supposed to be changing all the parking times but that’s not going to stop it because ticket wardens won’t be here in the evenings.

‘I’m not an old misery but it’s a joke really, isn’t it? If it wasn’t residential or such a small road I think it would be fine.’ 

Darren Munday, who lives next door to the studio, said: ‘It’s a nightmare with parking. You can’t get places between six and nine in the evening so you can’t go and see the rugby or anything.

‘They had agreed they would park at the Sainsbury’s but it hasn’t really stuck. My wife’s disabled as well so when someone uses the disabled bay it’s difficult.

‘I just want them to use the parking in Sainsbury’s. They do showcases on Sundays and you get hundreds turning up.

‘When they come out at the end of the evening you get a bit of a cackle of ladies outside but otherwise the noise isn’t too bad.’

Ramesh Bhattarai, who also lives next door, said: ‘Parking is my only worry but it should be alright.

‘It will get crowded. It’s crowded sometimes already. I’ve been living here for one and a half years. They’ve already got something going on in their back yard.’

But the couple claim the planning application has ‘created confusion’ and neighbours fears over an influx of people to their small street are unfounded.

Mr Altamirano said: ‘[The planning application] is something that has created a lot of confusion with people. We want to provide good classes and we don’t want to put too many people in here.

‘However, we want to organise wellbeing workshops and theatre workshops. So we clean everything and work on the floor.

‘Quality and safety is very important to us. Fitness is only eight people.’

Be in The Sky offers pole dancing lessons as well as ‘aerial classes’, which involves exercising on hoops and silks in the air. 

The couple have been running the studio for the past three years. Mrs Himestra has over 10 years of experience in pole and aerial skills.

Mr Altamirano also runs theatre classes and wellbeing workshops in the space. The couple have lived in the area for 10 years and they now have a nine-year-old son. 

He said they were trying to build a space that is lacking in Southampton, similar to those in Brighton and Bristol, adding that they do not have any machinery in the studio that makes any noise because they only have poles, silks and ropes.

‘We did a noise assessment, a noise survey during the classes. This building is built in a way so you don’t hear anything,’ he said. 

‘We only have music at a low level because it is not a gym and it is more of a background thing. The noise from our perspective couldn’t be a problem.’ 

Mr Altamirano said that in the context of the area, where they have two pubs close by and hear ‘drunk people in the street’ late at night, the noise is not loud.

He added that parking should not be a problem during the day because they did a survey to show the parking spaces were empty.

‘Medina is a very busy road but we tell our clients to park in Sainsbury’s,’ said Mr Altamirano. 

‘We know that they do because they finish the classes and they run there.’

He said they had only received two complaints from neighbours about parking in the three years they have been open. 

The studio is often used out of hours for private use because Mrs Himestra practices in there. 

Mr Altamirano added that the couple would only like to extend commercial usage of the space.  

Planning officers from Southampton City Council are recommending that councillors approve the application at the panel meeting.

A report to the meeting said: ‘The proposals to use the outbuilding for exercise classes on a more regular basis during the working week, and weekends would result in an intensification of the site and could result in noise impacts to neighbouring properties.

‘The noise impacts would primarily result from additional comings and goings to the site. Officers accept that the intensification will be noticeable.

‘However, regular organised sessions would be limited to two or three sessions per day, and the number of participants would not regularly exceed the current number already permitted.’