Swansea council concern as bid to limit shared houses overturned

There is a concentration of shared homes in Uplands, Swansea

A council leader has criticised planning inspectors for overturning decisions to stop properties in Swansea from being converted into house shares.

Rob Stewart said it "can't be right" that decisions made by "democratically elected members" were being overturned on appeal by officials in Cardiff.

Swansea wants to limit the number of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs).

The Planning Inspectorate said inspectors had to consider broader circumstances when making decisions.

An HMO is a property rented by at least three people who share communal facilities.

After Cardiff, Swansea has the second most HMOs by local authority in Wales, with about 2,000 house shares, according to official figures.

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Under new policies adopted by the council, only 10% of residential properties can now be HMOs within a 50m radius, except in a designated area in parts of Uplands and Brynmill, near Swansea University, where the limit is 25%.

Mr Stewart said a number of "democratic decisions" made by the authority's planning committee had been overturned on appeal to the inspectorate.

An appeal for an HMO in Mount Pleasant, near Uplands, was given the go-ahead

An application to convert a house on Montpelier Terrace in Mount Pleasant, near Uplands, into a seven-bedroom HMO was turned down by the authority as it would have resulted in the neighbouring house being "sandwiched" by HMOs on either side.

The owner successfully appealed the decision with planning inspectors saying that although the application fell foul of sandwiching, he did not agree with the council's judgement.

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The authority applied for a judicial review of that decision but this was rejected.

Mr Stewart said: "It can't be right that democratically elected members who know their communities well, have all the facts, make a proper decision, then get overturned by an unelected official in Cardiff who knows very little about the area, and who is supposed to be supportive of the policies and follow the policies we've put in place."

Jayne Keeley said it was about "getting the right mixture of houses"

Shop owner Jayne Keeley, who has traded in Uplands for 32 years, said it and nearby Brynmill have suffered with rubbish and parking problems due to being "saturated" with HMOs.

"If you have too many of one thing then, sometimes, it can just tip the apple cart, and this is what's happening with the HMOs as the impact of too many can be quite devastating to a community," she said.

A Planning Inspectorate spokesperson explained that an independent inspector is appointed to consider each appeal and would "make their decision in line with the plan for the area unless there are material considerations that justify taking a different view".

"This does not mean that they have disregarded the views of the local planning authority or local residents, rather that they have attributed different weight to the issues in coming to their decision," they said.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said planning inspectors take decisions in line with planning law and local and national policies.