Tenants facing ban on having friends to stay
TENANTS faced being barred from having boyfriends and girlfriends to stay by a council ban on having overnight guests at a shared house.
Residents in Royton opposed plans to turn a former accountancy office at Oldham Road into a ninebedroom home.
Landlord Ashik Hussain is aiming to let the property to junior doctors and nurses working at the nearby Royal Oldham Hospital.
But his plans for the property showed a double bed in each room - sparking concern that up to 18 people would be using the property if the tenants had someone over to stay for the night.
In a bid to allay those fears, a planning meeting heard a suggestion to impose a condition which would restrict the maximum number of people who could remain in the property overnight to nine.
This could have effectively prevented residents from sharing their bed with partners or friends.
But officers said it would ‘not be appropriate’ to impose such a restriction through planning law - and said the levels of occupants could be monitored through the council’s licensing department.
Councillors also heard a suggestion that a planning condition be imposed which meant only medics could live there - but were again told that this was unenforceable.
Speaking in support of the plan to convert the office to a shared residence, Saddleworth South Coun John Hudson said: “I don’t know who’s coming to live next to me and I don’t know who they’re having in their bed at night, and neither do I want to know, so I don’t think it’s our job to be asking who these people are going to have.
“If they’re lucky enough to get somebody to stay over, I say good luck to them.”
Mehnaz Nazir, who lives nearby, had objected to the application, claiming it would increase the levels of noise and rubbish. She told councillors there had been ‘no indication’ about the background of the occupants, such as whether they had been recently released from prison, and it would be difficult to ‘monitor’ the behaviour of individuals.
“We’re a community that has young children there, who are very family orientated, and having single occupants would impact the community that we have here,” she said.
“Residents in the local area would suffer the consequences of this occupation, so I strongly object to it being such a property where there are that many, 18 individuals, that is coming into a family orientated area.”
The landlord’s agent, Grant Erskine, had told the meeting that the applicant, Ashik Hussain, owns a series of HMOs across Oldham and specialised in ‘high-end’ which rooms which targeted ‘better tenants’ - saying that the landlord did not want more than nine people living there.
“This one quite obviously is aiming at nurses and junior doctors at the hospital down the road because of its proximity but with a secondary consideration for the town centre”, Mr Erskine said. “The client doesn’t want any more than what he’s approved for because it’s harder wear and tear, it creates friction between different tenants, so they’re actually quite strict even on having partners stay over for a couple of nights.
“Of course any tenant can have a guest for a night or two but letting agents are very strict it’s a one person occupancy room.”
Committee Vice Chair Coun Graham Shuttleworth responded: “My concern with this is we’ve got plans drawn up that show a double bed in every room.
“So we could be talking a minimum of nine, we could be talking a maximum of 18.
“If it is intended for single bedrooms, can we put a condition on it that the maximum number of occupants of the building overnight is nine?”
Shaw ward Coun Chris Gloster also queried whether a planning restriction could limit occupants to only ‘medical professionals.’
But Development Management Team Leader Graham Dickman replied that a planning restriction to nine residents would be difficult to enforce and justify.
“It’s very difficult to control the actual occupants of these properties, we’re not in a position where we could vet those people in terms of their occupations or any other personal circumstances they may have,” he said.
“I can understand that that is a concern.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate as a planning control on particular occupancy levels.”
But committee chair, Coun Steven Bashworth added: “I do think the level of activity from introducing a minimum of nine unrelated and unconnected people into an area of this nature will have a detrimental effect on the neighbourhood and I’ve got a few concerns about the whole thing.”
He proposed that an extraction system was needed to cope with the level of fumes from the kitchen, which he claimed would go beyond ‘domestic’ levels as it could be in ‘almost constant use.’
The application had been recommended for approval by planning officers, but the committee voted to defer a decision to the next meeting, demanding more information on the effect on the local character of the area, overlooking windows, waste collection, parking and capacity of the kitchen extractor.