Plan for house of multiple occupation in former Newport surgery is thrown out

Eveswell Surgery closed its doors in March after the practice’s doctors struggled to recruit more staff amid increasing workloads.

An application to change the building’s use provoked widespread opposition, with nearly 100 objecting residents living near the Chepstow Road signing two petitions.

Despite promising “high quality accommodation”, the scheme’s reliance on surrounding streets for parking was deemed unreasonable by Newport City Council officers.

A statement said: “Additional parking demand will cause congestion to the detriment of residential amenity and no information has been provided that mitigates this objection.”

READ MORE:

• Two killed by train near Port Talbot - there are delays to services through Newport
• Supermarket still investigating “suspected contamination” at Newport petrol station
• Video shows firefighters tackling a prefab fire in Newport

One of the two petitions received by the council were signed by parents of children attending Eveswell Primary School, which is directly opposite the surgery.

A group of parents of Eveswell Primary schoolchildren signed a petition opposing the HMO scheme

Both petitions said parking was “already at capacity” on the surrounding roads, notably on Chepstow Road and Rosslyn Road.

A planning statement for the applicant claimed the HMO would “not result in a need for off-street parking” given the building’s proximity to public transport links.

It read: “The current use [the surgery] generated a parking demand for six operational spaces and 19 non-operational spaces.

“The overall parking demand generated is therefore 25 spaces. The proposal will therefore result in a significant reduction demand for on-street parking.”

Residents also said a lack of storage space for waste would exacerbate existing fly-tipping problems in the area, while also taking issue with the building’s HMO suitability.

Using the council’s planning guidance, the applicant argued that the property would be compliant given that there was only one other HMO within a 50-metre radius.

The statement added: “The proposal will not result in an over 10 concentration of HMOs within the area.”

If approved, the building’s ground floor would have housed four bedrooms, a communal lounge, kitchen, dining room and bathroom facilities.

The first floor would have had six bedrooms, with two en-suites, and two shower rooms with toilets.