Planning committee 'unreasonable' for its refusals around shared houses in Portsmouth

The planning inspectorate ruled against the council on three separate applications it rejected in May last year, saying it had ‘behaved unreasonably across several fronts’.

The applications were first submitted in 2019 for the conversion of three houses in multiple occupation (HMO) and refused a year later due to potential issues around nitrates.

An appeal against these decisions was dismissed, prompting the submission of revised applications aimed at overcoming this concern. However, these were again refused but on grounds not ruled an issue in the first appeal, leading to the latest ruling.

Members of the planning committee turned the proposals down, saying they would ‘fail to provide a good standard of living accommodation for the occupiers and represent an over-intensive use of the site,’ despite planning officers recommending they be approved.

The outcome of the appeal was published last month and said councillors had shown ‘a disturbing lack of awareness of basic planning procedure and law’.

‘I have found that the council behaved unreasonably across several fronts,’ the inspector said. ‘The planning committee’s decision, in particular its failure to heed the clear advice of its officers in relation to the previous appeal decisions, was unreasonable, irrational and flew in the face of established planning practice and law.

‘The council is also guilty of using vague, generalised or inaccurate assertions about the proposals’ impact and manifestly failed to produce evidence necessary to substantiate the reasons on appeal.’

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This justification has also been used to refuse several other similar planning applications, prompting concerns the council faces losing other appeals and having more legal costs awarded against it.

As a result, a report by Ian Maguire, the council’s assistant director for planning and economic development, will be considered by the committee next week calling on councillors to be aware of the issues raised in the decision.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the leader of the council and a member of the planning committee, said the approach of the committee had been ‘non-partisan and consistent’ but said the appeal decision would be reviewed.

‘We have made it very clear as a committee that we feel these applications need to be looked at closely and believe that planning permission is needed when any HMO is turned into a super HMO,’ he said. ‘But we will look at what the planning inspectorate has said and see what we need to do.’

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