Cheshire East Council has refused to allow a six-bed HMO in Crewe to house nine people - on the grounds future residents would be living in sub-standard conditions.

Planning officer Adrian Crowther said the application submitted for 91 Hungerford Road, Crewe, related to 'only the number of people in the property that's changing, not the number of bedrooms'.

On Wednesday (June 29), Mr Crowther told the southern planning committee: "The two issues from a planning perspective that we're concerned [about] with this application, is clearly the number of people in the property.

Planning officer, Adrian Crowther, believed the communal space was not adequate (Ryan Parker).

"You're going from six to nine, and the concern is one of general amenity.

"Nine people operating in a relatively tight property, in a close-knit community, is going to lead to inevitably some sort of disturbance.

"And the second point that exacerbates that is the sandwiching issue.

"Property 93 would be effectively sandwiched between two HMOs and obviously adding extra people into this particular property would exacerbate that problem."

91 Hungerford Road with 93 Hungerford Road to the right. The planning officer said number 93 would have effectively been sandwiched between two HMOs (Ryan Parker).

The officer said the bedroom sizes were adequate but the concern was the communal space was not adequate.

Some councillors were also concerned about the bedroom sizes too.

Crewe East Labour councillor, Joy Bratherton, said: "Somebody compared it to a prison cell, I'd actually written down here, a monastic cell, so that's medieval times because, quite frankly, that's all you could fit in there."

Crewe South Labour councillor, Laura Smith, moved the application be refused and this was seconded by Cllr Bratherton.

The view of Hungerford Road from outside the property. This has now been refused (Ryan Parker).

The committee vote for refusal was unanimous.

Crewe Nub News took pictures of the Hungerford road property last week (June 22).

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