A decision on turning a former pub into an HMO has been delayed over concerns about parking.

Worcester City Council’s planning committee reached a stalemate over deciding on plans to convert the former Berwick Arms pub on the corner of Bath Road and Stanley Street into a three-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO).

The plans that were scaled down from eight bedrooms after being rejected by the city council over parking concerns earlier this year.

A decision on the three-bed HMO has now been delayed after the planning committee took four separate votes to reach a decision.

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Cllr Alan Amos and Cllr Elena Round said they both had concerns in light of the previous rejected plan, the building would still be used as an eight-bed HMO despite only having permission for three bedrooms.

Cllr Owen Cleary said he did not “trust” the application by Kerry Harris and was “uncomfortable” with approving it.

“I don’t believe this,” he said. “In every other sphere of life, if I don’t believe something I don’t get involved in it. I look at this and I genuinely think we are being taken for a ride.

The city council said a ‘gut instinct’ could not be used as a reason to refuse a planning application and councillors would only be able to judge the plan based on what was in front of them.

This meant the planning committee could also not turn the plan down over ‘speculation’ that it would be used as an eight-bed HMO in the future.

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Cllr Elena Round said she had concerns that two parking spaces was not enough for a three-bed HMO but highways officers at Worcestershire County Council, who were in a similar position to the city council’s planners, said they could only judge what had been proposed and two spaces was all that was required.

Cllr Sue Smith said an HMO with up to six people could mean six cars parking next to a building surrounded by double yellow lines.

Duncan Rudge, head of planning at the city council, said he was concerned the committee’s decision could not be defended if it was appealed and it would end up costing the council money.

The committee voted on going along with the council’s recommendation to approve the HMO but that was defeated and then another vote on turning the plan down was also lost after a deadlock led planning chair Cllr Karen Lewing to use her deciding vote to defeat the call for rejection.

In desperation to reach an agreement, another vote was had on approving the plan with an added ‘parking management plan’ but that was also lost.

A fourth and final vote was eventually passed to delay a decision until the next meeting to allow councillors to visit Bath Road and Stanley Street to see the potential HMO for themselves.

The former pub was converted into a home several years ago but a move to convert it into an eight-bed HMO was rejected by Worcester City Council earlier this year after a number of complaints from neighbours about parking.

The Berwick Arms closed in early 2011 and stayed empty until plans by developer Peter Styles to turn the former watering hole into a four-bed house were backed by the city council two years later.