‘Too many HMOs in Bognor Regis’

Developers want to convert the empty Aldwick House Care Home in Nyewood Lane into a 38-bed HMO and have submitted a change of use application to Arun District Council.

The deadline for public comments is today (Friday).

Visit the council’s planning portal using code BR/86/20/PL

The application, which is also seeking permission for the demolition of the conservatory at the back and the building of an extension with new roof lights and a dormer window, has already attracted a number of objections.

The case has prompted wider discussion about an increase in HMOs across Bognor Regis.

The Nyewood Estate and Sunnyhill Park Estate Residents Association, which is opposing the conversion plans for the care home, submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Arun for a list of all the licensed HMOs in the town and surrounding area.

Its website says: “The information provided was then converted into a Bognor Regis HMO map so the proliferation of HMOs in Bognor Regis compared to the surrounding area is visibly clear.”

Arun’s local plan points out the importance of ensuring mixed and balanced communities are developed so situations where areas become unbalanced by the narrowing of household types toward domination by a particular type, such as shared housing, are avoided.

The residents’ association believes the map demonstrates this section in the local plan ‘has not been observed by ADC’.

In response the council says this section of the local plan sets out principles to maintain balanced and mixed communities in Arun. Further paragraphs recognise that HMOs also provide ‘much needed affordable housing for households on low incomes, students and young professionals and are important for the economy – as well as posing issues for amenity and services should these become problematic and overly concentrated within an area’.

An Arun spokesman said: “There is currently no evidence that the Arun local plan has failed to maintain a balanced and mixed community.

“A geographic concentration threshold is not defined in the local plan and concentration in itself may not necessarily be an issue (if the HMOs are well designed accommodation and well serviced managed and maintained).”

Following a motion to full council in February, planning and licensing services are actively investigating the geographic concentration of HMOs within Arun and any correlation between amenity and regeneration issues.

The spokesman explained: “This is in order to understand whether licensing regime changes need to be made and whether there is evidence to justify the establishment of an Article 4 direction across the local planning authority area as a whole or being applied specifically to defined local areas needing control. This work is being coordinated and will report in the summer 2020.”

Development of smaller HMO schemes can benefit from permitted development rights and do not normally require planning permission from a local authority.

To view the map visit the residents’ association website.

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