Agenda item

Sui generis change of use of the existing six person House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (use class C4) to a seven person HMO (Retrospective).

During this agenda item, the meeting length had reached almost two and a half hours. In accordance with the council’s Constitution, the committee agreed to extend the meeting in order to finish this item.

The committee considered planning application P22/S2552/FUL for the sui generis change of use of the existing six person House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (use class C4) to a seven person HMO (retrospective), on land at 4 Barncroft, Wallingford.  

Consultations, representations, policy and guidance, and the site’s planning history were detailed in the officer’s report, which formed part of the agenda pack for the meeting. 

The planning officer introduced the report and highlighted that this was brought to the committee as the applicant is a member of the council. The planning officer recommended that the application be refused due to the inadequate provision of off-street parking.

The planning officer informed the committee that the dwelling was converted into a ‘house in multiple occupation’ (HMO) via permitted development rights. The applicant then received a licence for seven people to live in the home and a resident had since moved in. As the applicant did not get planning permission for the increase from a six to seven person HMO, this application was considered to be retrospective.

The newly revised parking standards, adopted by the highway’s authority on 18 October 2022, required 0.5 on-plot spaces per bedroom, meaning seven bedrooms would need 3.5 parking spaces. Based on this, and the known traffic problems in the area based on the site’s proximity to Wallingford school and additional parking restrictions along St Georges Road, the two spaces currently provided was considered inadequate off-street parking and led the planning officer to recommend that the application be refused.

Richard Harding, speaking on behalf of the applicant, spoke in support of the
application.

The committee noted that the highways authority had no objection to the application and some members believed that the local public transport routes might provide sufficient special circumstances to overturn the officer recommendation and approve the application. Some members also mentioned that on street parking could be used as there were no restrictions on Bancroft and that parking issues might only occur during specific parts of the day, such as during the school run.

However, the majority of members believed that the current six person HMO would not be approved if it required planning permission due to the property not being able to meet the correct parking standards for six occupants, and therefore that the application for increasing this to seven should be refused.

A motion, moved and seconded, to approve the application was not passed on being put to the vote with the chair exercising his casting vote.

The committee expressed concerns with the precedent of approving this application for the increase from a six to seven person HMO as the dwelling did not meet the required parking standard. Ultimately, based on this reason, the committee agreed that the application should be refused.

A motion, moved and seconded, to refuse the application was carried on being put to the vote.

RESOLVED: to refuse planning application P22/S2552/FUL, for the following reason:

The site provides inadequate parking facilities for cars and will lead to
indiscriminate/obstructive parking on the surrounding road network where parking restrictions are in place. The adjacent highway network is subject to high levels of onstreet parking pressure which would be further exacerbated by the proposal, resulting in increased physical and visual obstruction of the carriageway and pedestrian routes. The additional accommodation on the site would increase the risk to highway safety and to users of the highway contrary to policy TRANS5 and H17 of the adopted South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2035, Policy MC5 of the made Wallingford Neighbourhood Plan and the NPPF.