Council blocks Melton HMO plan after councillor says it would be a 'recipe for disaster'

Melton Borough Council’s (MBC) planning committee met to discuss plans to turn a corner plot at 34 Asfordby Road into a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO).

According to planning documents, the site has been home to offices, the town’s nursery, and a funeral directors.

More than 20 residents wrote to the council to object to the conversion, fearing the impact the HMO could have on the community.

In a letter to the council, resident Jamie Elliot raised concerns that the scheme would only provide four off-street parking spaces and Nicholas Steans raised further concerns that the new HMO’s location opposite a primary school could ‘erode the family-oriented residential character of the area’.

In spite of neighbour comments, officers said that all the relevant local bodies had given the plans the green light, and warned there is little ground for refusal.

Unlike neighbouring authorities, MBC does not have the legal framework in place to be able to refuse HMOs based on the overconcentration of shared accommodation.

However, councillors said the cumulative impact on neighbours would be too great and pushed for refusal.

Councillor Margaret Glancy (Independent) said she had ‘grave concerns’ and called the plans a ‘recipe for disaster’.

The committee concluded that the limited communal living facilities, the restricted level of outside space and the difference between the scale of occupation and parking facilities provided represented an overly intense development.

The applicant, Adrian Roberts, did not attend the meeting to speak in favour of the plans.