Site Address:        8 West Street, Oxford, OX2 0BQ

Proposal:               Change of use from dwellinghouse (Use Class C3) to a large House in Multiple Occupation (Sui Generis) (amended plans)

Recommendation:

West Area Planning Committee is recommended to:

(a) Approve the application for the reasons given in the report and subject to the required planning conditions set out in section 10 of this report and grant planning permission

(b) Agree to delegate authority to the Head of Planning, Sustainable Development and Regulatory Services to finalise the recommended conditions as set out in this report including such refinements, amendments, additions and/or deletions as the Head of Planning, Sustainable Development and Regulatory Services considers reasonably necessary.

The Committee considered an application for planning permission for Change of use from dwelling house (Use Class C3) to a large House in Multiple Occupation (Sui Generis).

The application was before the Committee as it was called in by Councillors Pressel, Rowley, Tanner and Fry on the grounds that a 7 occupant HMO is too many people for a small Osney Mead property, with no front garden to store bicycles and bins for the property.

The Planning Officer presented the report and advised that the Highways Authority had submitted a late comment requesting a condition that would ensure that no more than fifty visitor parking permits could be issued each year for the whole property. Officers recommended that this condition be included if planning permission was granted. A copy of the wording of the condition was circulated to the Committee. The Planning Officer explained that the application met the minimum requirements of the Council policies for amenities and facilities; bin storage / outside space; and cycle parking.  The decision to recommend approval had been finely balanced.

Barbara Hammond spoke against the application. 

The Committee asked questions of the officers and public speaker about the details of the application with particular reference to the following concerns:

·         The health and safety implications of installing vertical bike racks in the front hall

·         The desirability of moving bikes and refuse/recycling bins through the only amenity space

·         the accuracy of the plans

·         whether the layout and size of the shower rooms meant that they could actually be used for that purpose

·         the limited provision of communal amenity space

·         The apparent lack of privacy for the occupants due to the quality of the internal walls

·         That the floor space standards would be breached if the walls had adequate insulation

In reaching its decision, the Committee considered all the information put before it. The Committee concluded that the application before them did not provide an acceptable standard of housing and was not of the quality that should be required by the City Council. They felt that the cumulative impact of their concerns about the practicalities of the design features of the application justified challenge on the basis of over-development.

The Committee suggested that officers should review the Council’s Planning and HMO policies in the light of the issues identified in determination of this application.

Notwithstanding the officer recommendation for approval and on being put to the vote the Committee agreed the resolution as set out below.

The West Area Planning Committee resolved to refuse planning permission for application 17/02392/FUL for the following reasons:

1.    Having had regard to the amount of space within the property within the House in Multiple Occupation it is considered that the proposals would provide an insufficient quantity and quality of indoor space to the detriment of occupier’s amenity. The small size and shape of bedrooms in addition to the poor quality provision of shared indoor amenity space, in particular the lack of natural light and ventilation in that space would make the development unacceptable. As a result the development is contrary to Policies CP1 and CP10 of the Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016 and Policies HP7 and HP12 of the Sites and Housing Plan (2013).

2.    The proposed development would provide an impractical and unrealistically usable arrangement for the storage of cycles and refuse. As a result the development would fail to adequately address the day to day needs of the occupiers of the large House in Multiple Occupation and would be contrary to Policy CP10 of the Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016 and Policies HP7, HP13 and HP15 of the Sites and Housing Plan (2013).