Avenham resident says HMOs are ruining their neighbourhood as planning permission is granted to another

45-year-old Mohamed Vaid, lead coordinator of the Avenham Neighbourhood Watch Group says the council does not appreciate the effect that HMOs are having on the conservation area.

What are HMOs?

An HMO is officially known as a house in multiple occupations.

Preston City Council clarifies that an HMO is a property in which unrelated persons live as their full-time home, whilst sharing a basic amenity such as a toilet or kitchen, with other people who are not blood related.

If there are five or more unrelated persons sharing the property then it must be licensed by the council, whilst certain property conversions will also require planning consent.

The council adds that buildings converted to flats are not HMOs, unless there are five or more persons sharing within an individual flat, and properties operated by social landlords do not require an HMO License, as they are exempt.

How many HMOs are there in the area?

Altogether there are 271 licensed HMOs in Preston but specifically in the Avenham Conservation Area there are 12 registered HMOs: three each in Great Avenham Street, Latham Street and Avenham Terrace, two in Frenchwood Street and one in Chaddock Street.

What is Mohamed’s issue with them?

One of the main issues in the neighbourhood that Mohamed attributes to HMOs are problems surrounding the bins.

Mohamed, a civil servant, said “At the moment, we've got bins left outside houses by residents… some can't be bothered taking them in because they’re HMOs.

“It affects disabled residents who are trying to get around.”

He added that as HMOs house more individuals than the average home, the population issue causes bin overflow issues.

The Avenham resident told the Post: “For HMOs, the bins aren't sufficient but if they had any bigger bins, you'd be blocking the whole streets, and people won't be able to get past.”

Mohamed also believes the problem of bins being left out can be linked to the issues surrounding parking that having too many individual adults living in one house creates.

He explained that in streets with no parking permits, such as Frenchwood Street, competition over outside parking spaces means “residents use the bins to leave safe spaces, but they never put them back in”, again creating accessibility issues.

Mohamed, who is also an independent advisor for Lancashire Police, was encouraged to speak out about the problem after another HMO permission was granted in the neighbourhood earlier this year.

In May, one planning application was approved allowing an originally 3-bedroomed house – 38 Great Avenham Street – to be converted into a 9-bed HMO.

Explaining his opposition Mohamed said: “It isn’t suitable for the area, for the street, for the parking, and residents are concerned about the noise levels.

“They're just granting all these HMOs but if you were to live in this area of the city, you would feel the same way, and residents are being ignored in that sense.”

Mohamed added: “There's lately been a few residents who are moving away from the area because of all these additional flat systems that have been bought in.”

On top of this, Mohamed believes that there are more HMO properties in the area who do not have licences however Preston City Council denies this and has provided proof of this not being the case.

What have the council said in response to Mohamed?

Councillor Jennifer Mein, Cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “During the past few months, Council officers and members have received contact on a number of occasions from Mr Vaid. Officers have replied on each occasion, both explaining the current legal position and the fact that legitimate consents and any necessary licences for the addresses listed are in place.

“Extensive checks of a number of data sources held by the Council, in addition to some site visits to check the accuracy of these records, have established that none of the allegations contained within Mr Vaid’s correspondence, now amounting to several streets worth, are substantiated.

“Some of the sub-divided properties in the Avenham area were created a number of years ago. While we appreciate this might not the ideal scenario for every local resident, within the current planning and HMO licensing legislation, and as long as the relevant criteria are met, the Council has no grounds to refuse applications to create accommodation of this type.

“However, we recognise that some residents have concerns about the number of HMOs in their community and as a result we are examining whether our planning policies need to change.’’