Between December 3 and December 5, Havering Council made decisions on four individual planning applications for HMOs around Hornchurch.
Two of the bids were deemed lawful, one was required to have planning permission and one was outright refused.
On December 3 an application for a certificate of lawfulness for the existing use of 195A Ardleigh Green Road made by Paul Demetriou was dealt with, and a small HMO was deemed to require planning permission.
On Google Maps, 195A Ardleigh Green Road appears to be the address of Fish and Chip shop Poseidon Fish Bar although there is no mention of it in the planning statement.
A document detailed that the property was inhabited continuously by five people prior to 2018 with no enforcement action being taken by the council in this time.
However, the planning authority said there was “insufficient qualitative evidence” to show that the premises has been used and occupied as an HMO for ten years prior to the date of submission.
A lawfulness certificate was not issued, although this does not necessarily indicate that it was not lawful.
A retrospective application to change a first floor flat in Berther Road from a self-contained residential apartment to a large HMO for up to seven people at was directly refused on December 5.
A planning statement claims all existing occupants of the site are “working professionals employed at the same local restaurant”.
A site location document shows the flat being positioned above the Turkish restaurant Shish Meze.
The plans were proposed by Nadir Gul and were deemed to have a “negative impact on the supply of family housing in the borough” by the local planning authority.
Planning officers also said the proposals would be “disproportionate in scale for a modestly sized flat” and would “undermine community cohesion and resilience as well as being at odds with surrounding character”.
Two separate applications were submitted by Michael Moore of The River Low Group for certificates of lawfulness for properties at 2 and 3 Kyme Road.
Both sought permission for a loft conversion and to increase the occupancy of the HMOs from five to 6 six people.
Havering Council deemed that planning permission was not required for either application on December 5 and the use of the properties as HMOs was confirmed as lawful.
The conversions and increased occupancies can go ahead without further permission required.
