Councillors approved plans for a shared house despite objections from neighbours and a councillor for the area.
A former family home at 65 Ladies Mile Road, in Patcham, can be converted into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) for up to seven people.
Planning permission was granted by seven votes to two when Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee met yesterday (Wednesday 2 October).
The applicant, Bridget Haxby, of Hill Drive, Hove, had already reduced the proposed maximum number of occupants by two from nine to seven.
Neighbour Michelle Graham and Conservative councillor Anne Meadows, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury ward, spelt out their objections at the meeting at Hove Town Hall.
Mrs Graham was concerned about the potential for noise and the difference between a family’s movements and seven individuals coming and going from the house on the corner of Ladies Mile Close.
She said: “We are likely to suffer increased noise pollution, particularly as the communal spaces are directly adjacent to our lounge. An element of connection between future occupiers cannot be guaranteed.
“Indeed, each person is likely to have their own timetable (and) the cumulative level of comings and goings as well as social events is likely to be more frequent, potentially including anti-social hours.”
Mrs Graham said that her family had also experienced disturbance with the house operating as a smaller HMO.
Councillor Meadows said the application would set a precedent in the area and a shared could be used as an unregulated Airbnb.
She said: “Planning permission for any development or change of use should not be granted where it would cause material nuisance and loss of amenity to the existing adjacent users.
“And yet this is what you would be agreeing to. The increased noise level for anyone in this property would be detrimental to the neighbours, particularly as it is a semi-detached property and the adjoining family have already had problems in this case.”
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald voted against the application, saying that the area was not suited to shared houses as there were no HMOs.
She said: “The main thing about this application is it is an unsuitable location in an entirely residential neighbourhood on a busy corner and close to two schools.
“Individual occupants generate noise and refuse and parking. There’s not any residential parking on this at all. It’s not like it’s near a university or a language school. It’s not that sort of an area.”
Councillor Theobald asked for a condition requiring a noise study to see if soundproofing was necessary.
There goes the neighbourhood. Soon to look and sound like the Upper Lewes Rd 🤦♂️
“Individual occupants generate noise and refuse and parking. There’s not any residential parking on this at all. It’s not like it’s near a university or a language school. It’s not that sort of an area.”
Ah the “but students” complaint which totally unrecognises that there are many HMOs which aren’t student based but are used by ordinary people who just – like Councillor Theobald’s – want to live their lives.
The greed of these property developer leeches makes me want to vomit!
They’re not providing a roof over someone who head!
It’s just a virtual prison cell straight out from Ford Open Prison!
Who will live there?
Do we even need to guess???
They money in their veins property developers make me want to vomit!
The greed of these property developer leeches makes me want to vomit!
They’re not providing a roof over someone’s head!
It’s just a virtual prison cell straight out of Ford Open Prison!
Who will live there?
Do we even need to guess???
They money in their veins property developers make me want to vomit!
There is nowhere to park there now anyway. The bottom end of LMR is busy, the side roads have restricted parking . This should be a family home for mum, dad and 2/3 kids, not a bedsit for 7 grown adults.
Shameful decision.
People complaining obviously typing from their comfy home. Probably owned by them. When are these very people going to catch up with the fact that many young people have no opportunity to own. Houses like this are how people live now. Things have changed-people are not having kids like they used to, single people need somewhere to live too.
I live a few doors away and had no idea about this.
There really is an issue with parking spaces and it’s very difficult to find a space outside your own home already. This is a ridiculous decision. A home for seven on a street full of families who really need parking next to their homes. Maybe the owner based in Hove should turn their home into a house for seven instead?