Agenda item

Change of use from dwelling (use class C3) to House of Multiple Occupation (use class C4). [Osbaldwick and Derwent] [Site Visit]

Members considered a full application by Mr and Mrs Ravindra Gullapalli for a change of use from dwelling (use class C3) to House of Multiple Occupation (use Class C4).

In their update to Members, Officers reported that there had been two letters of objection handed to them at the site visit. One was signed by the occupants of 19 Kirkdale Road and another signed by three people who did not provide addresses, but one of the authors had signed a petition referred to in the Officer’s report.

The comments from the occupants of 19 Kirkdale Road included;

·        A number of family homes had been lost to HMOs in the street

·        HMOs commanded higher property prices and the street would end up as an annexe to the University

·        HMOs lead to untidy gardens and increase in burglaries (when empty)

·        The Council is requested to check that all properties currently being used as HMOs have been approved.

The other letter stated that;

·        The number of students living in Kirkdale Road were spoiling the community

·        There was a lot of empty student accommodation in York

·        There were houses in Kirkdale Road being used by students without HMO consent

·        They wished to live in peace in quiet and maintain local amenities.

The Committee were also notified of an error in the calculation for the percentage of HMOs at neighbourhood level. The actual figure was 7.58% as opposed to the 10.5% in the Officer’s Report. The figure included the additional HMO in Kirkdale Road that had been identified by the Planning Enforcement Officer.

Councillors asked about the additional comments that had been received in respect of the application sent in and asked if there was any evidence to support these. One Member referred to the minutes from the previous meeting which stated that the two Executive Members on the Committee, Councillors Carr and Gillies, would take forward for consideration a review of the Supplementary Planning Document. She asked them about the timetable for this and it was confirmed that this was an ongoing process and would be fed into the Local Plan.

Representations were received from the Ward Member Councillor Warters. He informed the Committee that during the consultation period, he had been informed of five properties which were rental properties including one which was an HMO and was not on the Council’s database of registered HMOs. He highlighted that this meant that the figures in the Officer’s report were incorrect. However this had now been corrected in the Officer’s update.He felt the main issue of neighbourhood amenity asides from noise, rubbish storage was parking, in that there would only two spaces for four occupants, which would mean that additional cars would park on the narrow road.

Some Councillors questioned the reliability of the data that the Council had in that the report mentioned that there were three ‘known’ HMOs out of 41 properties and that Members should not approve an application even if the numbers had been amended. They added that in granting permission to the application they felt that they would be increasing the percentage of HMOs in the area.

One Member expressed doubts over the credibility of debating the degree to which the proposal was over the threshold, given that the application was consistent with the Council’s policy. She therefore felt that there were no grounds to turn it down.

Councillor Carr moved refusal of the application on the grounds that it would result in an unbalanced community an increase in  street parking due to the property being concentrated in a cul de sac.

Councillor Gillies seconded this refusal.

On being put the vote this motion it was;

Resolved:  That the application be refused.

Reason:     The application property is a semi-detached house located in a quiet suburban residential cul-de-sac. If the proposal were approved it would mean that the percentage of Houses in Multiple Occupation on Kirkdale Road within 100m of the property would increase from 9.75% to 12.2% which is well above the 10% figure contained in the council's Controlling the Concentration of Houses in Multiple Occupation Supplementary Planning Document where it is considered that a street level area can tip from balanced to unbalanced leading to concerns in respect to factors such as noise, community integration, parking pressures and property maintenance. It is considered that the specific circumstances are such that if approved, the proposal would individually and cumulatively with other nearby Houses in Multiple Occupation cause harm in respect of making worse the existing parking problems caused by the narrow carriageway width and changing the established character of the street affecting local community integration. As such the proposal conflicts with policy H8 (conversions) of the City of York Development Control Local Plan (2005), the Draft Controlling the Concentration of Houses in Multiple Occupation Supplementary Planning Document (2012, amended July 2014) and advice contained in the first criterion of paragraph 58 of the National Planning Policy Framework.