A PLAN to turn a family home in a ‘quiet residential’ street into a six-bed HMO has been turned down by the council.

Worcester City Council rejected the plan by Piers Warren to turn the home in Greenford Gardens, near the University of Worcester’s St John’s campus, into a six-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO).

An earlier plan had asked for permission for seven bedrooms before being revised.

The plan proved controversial when it was submitted with more than 30 neighbours complaining to the council.

A petition with 300 signatures ‘saying no to the HMO’ was also submitted to the council.

READ MORE: Concern that new sign on former Wetherspoons would be 'inappropriate'

Cllr Simon Geraghty, who represents the St Clements ward, also raised an objection saying six bedrooms was “overdevelopment.”

“Greenford Gardens is a well-designed quiet residential close consisting of family housing and providing good amenity space for its residents with a real sense of community,” he said in an objection to the council.

“A six-bedroom HMO would significantly impact this residential close with up to twelve unrelated people occupying a building that will have very limited amenity space for its residents, both within the building and outside, and is an overdevelopment of the site.”

The council’s planners rejected the application saying it would narrowly result in too many HMOs in the area.

READ MORE: Worcestershire council's update on concrete forcing schools to close

The current policy does not allow for more than ten per cent of homes within 100 metres of a given building to be HMOs – which the proposed HMO would just exceed at a ‘rounded up’ 11 per cent.

The council mostly controls the number of new HMOs that can be built in the city – as well as restricting the number of old homes that are converted into HMOs – and has the power to prevent any applications that, if built, would exceed the number of ‘accepted’ HMOs.

“The proposal would result in 11 per cent of HMOs in the area which is defined as an overconcentration and has the potential to lead to issues of anti-social behaviour as well as impacting on established residents and leading to imbalanced communities, with adverse impacts on local services and infrastructure,” the council said.