Backing for HMO plan after successful appeal

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Plans for a HMO in Newport have been given the green light following a successful appeal.

The proposal to convert 33 Walmer Road into a three-bed HMO (house in multiple occupation) was initially rejected by members of the city council’s planning committee, who deemed one of the bedrooms too small.

They also voiced concerns about bike storage and bins when they turned down Idriss Denou’s application last July, going against planning officers’ recommendations.

Welsh Government planning inspectors have since overturned the committee’s refusal after Mr Denou appealed against their decision.

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

A new council report shows the inspectors acknowledged one of the proposed bedrooms at 33 Walmer Road was “modest in size” but decided it was still large enough to “function adequately as a single bedroom”.

Looking at the rest of the property, the inspectors decided the communal living, dining and kitchen areas “provide sufficient space for the limited number of occupants to cook, eat, relax and socialise simultaneously”.

“These factors are likely to reduce the reliance on individual bedrooms for these activities,” the inspectors judged.

On bike storage, the council report notes the inspectors found it was “not an optimum arrangement” to move bikes through the property to get to and from the rear garden.

But this system is “not uncommon in terrace housing” and there was “no substantive evidence” it would put residents off using bikes.

Plans to store bins and recycling containers in a front forecourt were in keeping with neighbours, and the conversion of the property to a three-bed HMO was “unlikely” to generate “significantly more waste” than the house’s current use.