Plans for 18-bedroom house of multiple occupancy close to town centre

Applicant Lakshminarayanan Seshan has submitted the plans to Telford & Wrekin Council for the property off Bridge Road in Wellington.

The plans show six en-suite bedrooms on the ground floor and then two blocks of six en-suite rooms upstairs – with each block of six sharing a kitchen.

The applicant says that the Pandel Bathroom retail shop on the ground floor would remain open as normal.

The plans come after the applicant obtained a license for a 12-bed home of multiple occupancy (HMO) in September.

“It has been satisfactorily demonstrated that the building is capable of providing HMO bedrooms with associated living areas,” a planning statement says.

“The bedroom sizes are acceptable and meet the sizes required under the local standards for HMO’s. The en-suites and kitchen areas also meet the standards outlined within the ‘Local standards for Houses in Multiple Occupation’ Document.

“The newly created dwelling units meet minimum floor space and are well designed with sufficient space for storage as well. Refuse provision can be provided for both retail and residential use near the existing space.”

Mr Seshan says that there are ‘sufficient’ windows and doors in the part of building converted to bring ‘ample natural light’ to all the bedrooms.

He adds that the property is not in an industrial area and no ‘unreasonable nuisance or noise is expected’.

Plans for the HMOs show eight allocated parking spaces for the 18 bedrooms and the shop.

“The proposed on-site car park is to solely serve the site, providing parking for customers of the shop and residents of the flats only,” the applicant adds.

“The proposed ground floor flats would replace part of an existing shop such that there would be little or no difference in parking requirements. Secure and dry cycle storage can be provided at the property, if desired by the council.

“The proposed development would have a negligible impact in terms of trip generation and therefore an imperceptible impact on the local highway network.”

The car park would use two existing vehicle access points off Rowland Gate and Bridge Road with a one-way system used to ‘reduce potential vehicle conflicts’.

The plan can be viewed on the Telford & Wrekin Council’s website’s planning portal, application number: TWC/2023/0823. Comments can be made during the consultation phase which ends on November 24.