Pure Town Planning- Approved: permission in principle for a 11-bedroom HMO in Bournemouth

Posted by Pure Town Planning on 9th September 2019 -

BCP Council (Bournemouth):  Another first for Pure Town Planning, this time Darryl Howells has secured Planning Permission in Principle (PPiP) for the change of use of a dwelling to a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (Sui Generis) of 11 bedrooms with associated parking.

Darryl persuaded the client to submit a PPiP application as the planning fee was only £402 and the plans needed was simply the location plan and indicative floor plans.  The timescale for the decision is quicker being 5 weeks instead of 8 or 13 weeks.   Darryl’s argued for the scheme, highlighting the sustainable merits and accessible to local shops and services. 

In the planning officer’s judgement, it was recorded that “Under the Town & Country Planning (Permission in Principle) Order 2017 a “dwelling” is defined as – ‘includes a flat contained within a building of one or more flats’ and a “flat” is defined as ‘means a separate and self-contained set of premises constructed or adapted for use for the purpose of a dwelling and forming part of a building from some other part of which is divided horizontally”.  As such it was accepted that as there is one dwelling but its conversion to a HMO would still fall within the definition of one dwelling albeit including multiple (11no) homes inside the same building.

The benefit of a PPiP application is speed of decision and the cost.  It establishes a planning permission in a similar manner to an Outline application, so has significant greater weight than a pre-application which is merely an opinion of a planning officer and not binding to the Council.

If you have a planning query, no matter what size, please do not hesitate to contact us here at Pure Town Planning for a free of charge initial consultation and one of our experienced team would be delighted to assist you.