HMO gets green light despite fear it will ‘ruin’ community

A home in Maesycwmmer can be converted into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) despite opposition from neighbours, Caerphilly Council planners have judged.

The property at 52-53 Main Road is currently a single four-bedroom home which also contains a separate butcher’s shop.

Applicant Daniel Crown has successfully won planning permission to transform the residential parts of the building into a HMO for four unrelated people.

But 50 people objected to the plans during a recent consultation, voicing a range of concerns including that the HMO will add to pressure on parking and local facilities.

There were also suspicions raised about the future occupants of the HMO.

Some objectors told Caerphilly County Borough Council the project “will ruin the community”.

HMOs are typically properties where individual adults have their own bedrooms and share other communal areas such as kitchens, bathrooms or dining rooms.

In this case, the application shows the future residents would each have a first-floor bedroom and share a shower room.

On the ground floor, there will be a communal lounge, dining room and kitchen.

The butcher’s shop, which is not accessible from the residential parts of the property, will not be affected by the changes, according to documents submitted to the council.

Planning officers acknowledged that HMOs can generate “concerns” in communities because of a “transient nature of many tenancies”, as well the “intensive use of shared facilities”.

The council uses national guidance to determine how many HMOs should exist in any neighbourhood, but said in this case there were no other such properties in the area, meaning the addition of a new HMO in Main Road was “not considered to reach anywhere near the tipping point” of 10%.

The impact on local facilities is “not considered to be detrimental”, the planners added, explaining the HMO “would be akin to a four-person family living in the dwelling”.

Any concerns about the future occupants are “not controlled through the planning process” or are “not material planning considerations”, they added.

The council planners also dismissed the claim that a HMO could “ruin” the area.

“Given this is the first HMO in Maesycwmmer, it is not considered to have an impact on the wider community,” they concluded.