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Council planners have approved a contentious proposal to convert a Rhymney house into a four-bed HMO.
The plans by applicant Vidya Giri prompted local opposition earlier this year, and Caerphilly County Borough Council was sent 110 objections and a petition signed by 229 people against the proposal.
HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) are typically properties for between three and six single, unrelated adults who have their own private bedrooms but share other communal areas.
A neighbour told the council’s planning committee he had heard threats from passers-by shouting they would “burn it down” if 25 Upper High Street was converted.
He added he “lived in fear of what happens next” and was concerned about a “serious escalation of antisocial behaviour against the property and its residents if planning is approved”.
Members of the planning committee condemned the threats, and the applicant’s planning agent, Paul Parsons, said it would be “illegal to discriminate against any particular type of tenant or any that may possibly occupy a property”.
The committee heard the property had also been vandalised, and the applicant intended for a housing association to manage the property after it was converted to a HMO.
Cllr Carl Cuss, who represents the Twyn Carno ward, said there had been a “lack of transparency” about who would be housed there, however.
He claimed Rhymney was being targeted for HMO conversions because property prices were lower than elsewhere in the borough.
“This is not organic growth, it is exploitation,” he said.
The committee chose to defer a decision on the HMO plan, and asked officers to research how many of those properties were already nearby.
In a new report, planning officers said they conducted a “thorough” search of local planning records for the area surrounding the development site.
They found four HMOs, equating to 2.4% of the homes in the area – and below a level which could be considered an overconcentration of those property types.
“Based upon this, the assessment within the original decision report stands, with the local planning authority not in a position to argue that there is a high concentration of houses in multiple occupation in the immediate vicinity of the application site,” the planners said in their new report.
“Therefore, it is not considered that the proposed change of use to a HMO would significantly change the immediate character of the site or the wider Rhymney settlement.”
They granted planning permission, subject to conditions.