18/01192/FUL

147 Headley Way Oxford OX3 7SS

1 June 2018

Change of use of dwellinghouse (Use Class C3) to a House of Multiple Occupation (Use Class C4) (Retrospective).

If consent to this application were to be considered, it should be subject to a condition excluding the occupiers from eligibility to parking rights in the CPZ, in view of the high occupancy and limited availability of on-street parking. The applicant acknowledges that the change of use would breach policy regarding density of HMOs in the immediate locality, but the mitigating circumstance claimed, that this property would be occupied by professionals, not students, misses the point about the impairment of the character of the neighbourhood, through the loss of community family values, implies that the behavioural characteristics of ‘students’ is likely to be more unacceptable than ‘professionals’, and, in any event, no mechanism is suggested by which the employment status of the occupiers of the property can be regulated. This application should be refused on the grounds that it fails to comply with policy, without adequate grounds having been demonstrated that, in this particular case, this should be ignored.