Plans for bedsits where people would have to go outside to access a kitchen have been refused by Sefton Council.
The proposals, to convert part of a former bank on South Road in Waterloo into an eight room house of multiple occupation (HMO), were submitted to Sefton Council earlier this year. It is not the first time HMO plans have been considered and knocked back for the building by the council – with several previous attempts being refused on a range of grounds.
In November, Sefton Council refused three applications on the grounds the plans would create “cramped” and “inferior” living conditions. One of those was later approved on appeal - for a five bedroom HMO with flat roof extension.
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Plans were also considered in August to convert the top two floors of the building into residential units after the council changed rules that had previously approved the plans under permitted development rights.
After the implementation of a directive, called Article 4, which removed permitted development rights for HMOs in that area, the applicant, Harold Jones Ltd had to submit for full planning permission. Residents objecting to that scheme, which included plans for a two storey extension neighbours said left them “highly distressed”. Those plans were refused, also on the grounds they would create “cramped” living conditions.
The current application, according to a report published by Sefton Council’s planning officers last week, would involve creating some rooms that do not meet minimum space requirements – with little or no communal space for use by residents.
The application also received objections from residents on the grounds that there were existing live music venues nearby which would make the block unsuitable for part residential use, that the development itself would create unacceptable “nuisance and disturbance” and that plans to use the basement to store refuse were “bordering on comical.”
Another issue raised by objectors and by planning officers was the fact that communal spaces, namely kitchens, would be “more than one floor up or down” from living areas.
Planning officers said that plans for a kitchen diner with a “poor outlook” that would only be accessible by leaving the main building were unacceptable, as were plans for a much smaller kitchen in the ground floor of the building that “does not provide space for anything other than standing to cook.”
Planning officers said that issues around amenity space addressed in a previous appeal did not apply in the same way to this application. The appeal which was won in march related to a proposal for a five bedroom HMO at the site, which had more generous room sizes and communal spaces.
The council had rejected the plans on the grounds that there were no outdoor amenity spaces provided in the plans – although the planning inspectorate later said that was acceptable giving the amount of parks and other public spaces nearby.
Officers said the planning inspectorate’s decisions showed there was a “balance to be struck” which was not met by the current application, which would create an “unacceptable” level of overcrowding and lack of places for residents to spend time.
The report stated: “In the absence of a suitable living room or external amenity space an occupier would have to travel to one of the open spaces to enjoy any space in which to sit down which wasn’t their bedroom.”
Other concerns related to noise that could affect residents from the ground floor – which the applicant, Harold Jones Ltd, plans to retain as a commercial space.
Another issue raised was around dedicated bin storage facilities as part of the plans. The applicant stated the basement could be used as bin storage, although officers said: “The bins would have to be taken up and down a flight of stairs and it is considered this is not a realistic or suitable area for bin storage.”
With no access to the rear yard from the ground floor, officers councluded there was no storage space that could be used by residents for bins, deeming this aspect of the plans “not acceptable.”
Rejecting the plans, officers stated the proposal “fails to provide adequate living conditions for the future occupiers of the rooms” adding that it was an “over intensive use of the building” that provided “inferior space and living accommodation for the occupiers of the rooms.”
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