Borough council planners unanimously rejected bedsit plans for former Ilkeston pub building

Councillors have unanimously rejected plans to turn a series of historic pub buildings in a Derbyshire town centre into a 19-bed house in multiple occupation.

At an Erewash Borough Council meeting on May 7th, councillors unanimously rejected plans from Jet Property Lettings to convert buildings at 52 St Mary Street in Ilkeston town centre into a 19-bed/20-person HMO – otherwise known as a bedsit or “house in multiple occupation”.

These buildings, largely built 120 years ago, had formed part of the Old Harrow Inn, with The Harrow pub facing onto the marketplace itself

Council officers had recommended that the plans should be refused due to the proposed room sizes – for both bedrooms and communal areas – being too small, along with issues over privacy and lack of daylight for rooms.

A council report prepared for the meeting detailed that only seven of the 19 proposed bedsits would meet the required minimum space standards – with all seven being on the first floor.

It said none of the ground-floor or second-floor rooms would be suitable as living space because they are too small or too narrow, lack natural light, or have poor outlooks and privacy issues.

One room has “no outlook” and “little” direct sunlight due to it being in the former basement of one of the buildings, while another room would have “no privacy”, officers wrote.

The report also said the shared facilities are far too small, with the three kitchen and dining areas being less than half the required minimum size.

This comes after planning officers already had to get the applicant to tweak its plans to drop small kitchen spaces from most bedsits.

Adding the kitchens would make the rooms flats and not bedsits and the rooms would be significantly less than half the size required for a flat, officers detail, with these areas changed to “tea stations”.

Council officers had written: “The proposed would create an overall sub-standard level of accommodation for residents due to undersized rooms, inadequate natural lighting, poor outlook, and lack of privacy, together with undersized and poorly accessed communal kitchen/dining spaces, and inadequate outdoor space due to lack of privacy, overshadowing, and poor communal access.”

A total of eight objection letters had been submitted to the council along with an opposing petition with 23 signatures.

Issues raised by these opponents included a lack of parking, anti-social behaviour fears, inadequate bin storage and the impact on property values.

The applicant had claimed that all room sizes met the HMO policy space standards or even exceeded the requirements.

They wrote: “The proposed design has the ambition to create accommodation suitable to house those who need high-quality, ideally located and comfortable living accommodation in the centre of Derby [sic].

“The proposals offers a chance to enhance the street by bringing a tired building back into use by offering high-quality residential accommodation.”