Newport HMO plan rejected over parking and bedroom size concerns

Council planners in Newport have turned down an application to convert a terraced house into a HMO.

The applicant, Mohammed Hassan, had sought planning permission to change the use of 48 Rugby Road to a six-bed HMO (house in multiple occupation).

The plans, which also included a new rear extension and a garage, were partly retrospective.

HMOs are typically properties where single, unrelated adults have their own private bedrooms but share other communal areas such as kitchens or bathrooms.

Newport City Council officers refused planning permission on the grounds that two “very small” bedrooms fell below the local authority’s licensing standards and would provide an “inadequate level of amenity for the occupiers of those rooms”.

The rear extension and garage also represented an “overdevelopment”, the council planners judged.

The plans drew 11 objections from neighbours, during a recent consultation period, with concerns including parking pressures and the partially retrospective nature of the application.

Ward councillor Farzina Hussain also filed an objection to the proposal, citing “inadequate parking provision” among her concerns.

The council planners concluded that while the site is considered “sustainable”, on-street parking is in “high demand” locally and it had “not been evidenced that the additional parking demand can be accommodated”.

They also refused planning permission over flooding concerns relating to a proposed ground-floor bedroom at the property.

However, the council officers dismissed neighbour objections around anti-social behaviour and an overconcentration of HMOs in the area, deciding there was “there is no current evidence to support a refusal” on that basis.