PLANS to turn a property in Newport into a nine-bedroom house in multiple occupation (HMO) has been refused.

Last year, plans to convert 287 Caerleon Road into a HMO were submitted to Newport City Council.

If approved, the property, which currently contains two flats, would be completely redesigned into one property, with nine bedrooms.

At this time, the property, located in the St Julian’s area of the city, is understood to be vacant.

According to proposed floor plans, the lower ground floor would consist of a living room and kitchen, with nine en-suite bathrooms occupying the ground and first floors.

The existing garage would be demolished, and replaced by three off street parking spaces, complete with electric vehicle charging points.

But the plans, submitted by agents LRJ Planning on behalf of Mr Simon Bell, have been refused by council planning officers this week.

Read more: Critics say too many HMOs in Newport

Why have plans been refused?

As part of the planning process, all residents living within 50 metres of the property were contacted, and a number of these raised objections to the development.

This included concerns that the street us already “significantly oversubscribed” in terms of parking demand.

There were also worries that turning the property into a HMO could see a loss of character, a rise in anti-social behaviour in the local area, and an oversaturation of such properties in the area.

But, while there is a set limit in terms of the percentage of properties which can be used as HMO housing in any given area, it was found that this application would not exceed these limits.

A HMO is a house occupied by three or more people who are not related, and share facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom. They are most commonly lived in by students or young professionals.

In terms of parking issues, the council carried out a parking survey of the local area.

They found that “during visits, the saturation of on street parking in this area has led to vehicles parking illegally, with a number of vehicles parked on double yellow lines, across dropped kerb access points and also fully on traffic calming infrastructure.”

Continuing, traffic officers said: “allowing an increase in parking demand that can only be reasonably accommodated on this section of Caerleon Road would be detrimental to highway safety, in particular for pedestrians that can’t see over parked vehicles i.e. children and wheelchair users.”

Currently, the property has a parking demand of seven parking spaces, and it was concluded that the proposal would “result in an increased parking demand of four spaces that would have to be accommodated on street within the surrounding area”.

As a result, the application was refused, as “additional parking of vehicles will cause congestion and further limit available pedestrian crossing points on a busy B classified road, resulting in an adverse impact on highway and pedestrian safety and residential amenity.”