‘Too many Worthing HMOs squeezed into same area’

At a meeting of the planning committee on Wednesday (August 12), members said the application, to allow nine people to live in a former four-bedroom home in Valencia Road just south of West Worthing Railway Station, would be overdevelopment.

Chairman Paul High (Con, Heene) said: “I’m totally against this.

“There’s far too many of these establishments in Heene ward. They’re all squeezed into the same area and all you’re doing is making a situation which could possibly cause problems for everybody who lives in the vicinity.

“There’s far too many of them close together and it just goes on and on and on. Almost every planning meeting we get another one in front of us.

“Personally I think enough is enough. There’s too many in Heene and we’ve got to make some kind of a stand to stop it increasing.”

The council can do nothing to stop the owners from using the house as a six-person HMO as that change is covered by permitted development planning rules.

Also covered by those rules were the recent single-storey and roof extensions put in place to increase the number of rooms in the building.

The meeting was told the owners had already taken in some tenants and had proposed letting the house to the borough council for its own housing needs.

Those needs were stressed by James Appleton, head of planning, who said the council’s own housing studies showed the town needed HMOs.

He added: “We do have a major housing crisis and a lack of land to meet future housing needs.”

The councillors, though, were unanimously opposed to the plans.

Helen Silman (Lab, Heene) said it was very difficult to strike a balance between the feelings of local people and those who need accommodation.

But she pointed out that, with most of the garden taken up by a new office – which was built without planning permission – the home was little more than a place to sleep.

She said: “It’s not acceptable to cram nine people into this building with no other communal or outdoor space.”

The applicant has since submitted a retrospective application for the garden office.

While councillors recognised the need for emergency and social housing in Worthing, this application was seen as a step too far.

It was refused unanimously.

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