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A proposal for a new HMO in Newport has failed to win approval from city council planners, who said the conversion could have a “negative” impact on the area.
They refused an application to convert the existing property at 236 Chepstow Road into a HMO (house in multiple occupation) for five people.
HMOs are typically properties for single, unrelated adults who have their own private bedrooms but share other communal areas.
In this case, applicant Cody Brown proposed creating an extra bedroom from a ground-floor lounge.
His agents, LRJ Planning, argued the property was in a “sustainable” location and there was “no evidence” to suggest neighbours would be impacted by the conversion.
But council planners said the proposals failed to “relate positively to the distinct character” of the area or “contribute to the creation of a sustainable place”.
They said the conversion would “add to an existing significantly high level of HMO rooms” and “will cause the loss of a single-family dwelling… with associated negative amenity and social cohesion effects”.
A report also shows the council received six objections during a recent consultation period, from neighbours who raised concerns about noise, waste, overdevelopment and parking.
One said “this section of Chepstow Road already has a high concentration of HMO properties” and claimed another conversion would “further hasten the decline and appearance of the area”.
To prevent overconcentration of HMOs, Newport City Council places controls on how many of those properties can be located in any given area.
The report shows that if the conversion was approved, HMOs could make up as much as 26% of properties within a 50-metre radius – exceeding the council’s 10% threshold.
They said this would result in “a significant exceedance” of the council’s own limits on HMO concentrations.
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