The application proposed the demolition of an existing garage and attached shed, a single-storey side and rear extension, a hip-to-gable loft conversion with dormer, a dropped kerb and vehicle crossover, and the change of use from a dwelling house (Use Class C3) to an eight-bedroom House in Multiple Occupation in Sui Generis use at 3 Alberton Road, Bristol BS16 1HH. The application also included significant bin storage, cycle storage, and parking provision to the front of the property.
The site is located in a quiet, predominantly residential street composed of family houses and couples' properties. The proposal was one of several HMO applications in the locality, making the cumulative impact argument particularly important.
Bristol Local Plan Policy DM2 is explicit: proposals for conversion to HMO use will not be permitted where the development would harm the residential amenity or character of the locality through excessive noise and disturbance, or where it would create or contribute to a harmful concentration of such uses within a locality. The application site was located in an area where other HMO applications had been approved or were pending. Our objection assessed the cumulative impact — both in terms of noise and activity, and in terms of the progressive erosion of the family residential character of the street — and concluded that this application would exceed the threshold at which the concentration became harmful.
An eight-bedroom Sui Generis HMO generates materially more activity than a family dwelling: more frequent vehicle movements, more noise from communal areas, greater refuse volumes, and a transient occupancy pattern that reduces community stability. On a quiet residential street, these effects are intensified by the absence of ambient activity that might absorb some of the impact in a more urban setting.
Policy DM2 also requires the council to consider whether a proposal would reduce the choice of homes in the area by changing the housing mix. Alberton Road was characterised by single-family owner-occupied and rented properties. The conversion of a family dwelling to an eight-bedroom HMO represented a permanent loss of family-sized accommodation in an area where such properties were in demand — and where the cumulative effect of multiple conversions was already beginning to alter the residential balance.
The proposed extensions — single-storey side and rear, and hip-to-gable loft conversion with dormer — would substantially increase the property's footprint and bring it materially closer to the boundaries of neighbouring properties. The additional physical mass, combined with large external features including bin storage, cycle storage and an in-out driveway to the front, would create an urbanising and discordant visual impact on a street of traditional semi-detached and terraced properties. Policy DM30 requires extensions and alterations to safeguard the amenity of both the host premises and neighbouring occupiers — a requirement these proposals failed to meet.
The applicant withdrew the application following our objection. The cumulative character impact, the Policy DM2 concentration arguments, and the physical overdevelopment of the site through the proposed extensions presented a policy case that the application could not overcome. The withdrawal protected both the immediate neighbours and the wider residential character of Alberton Road.
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