‘Money-making’ HMO approved on town’s street despite objections

Fifteen letters of objection were submitted to Wakefield Council after plans for the property at 175 Lower Oxford Street were revealed, but the planning department approved the application.

The end-terrace property will now be turned into a shared house with the proposed floor plans showing it will have six bedrooms with a shared kitchen and dining area.

The plans show an attached rear garage would be converted into living space. Houses of multiple occupancy offer short-term contracts to tenants who are moving to the area to work for a short period of time.

But they remain controversial with some claiming they become a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

One resident wrote in a letter to the planning department: “A street of family and older people’s homes is entirely the wrong place to introduce an overcrowded HMO. It will be a cause of noise and disturbance to neighbouring residents.

“Affordable three-bedroom family houses of the type on Lower Oxford Street are in high demand in Castleford and it would therefore be wrong to remove one from the housing stock purely as a money-making exercise.”

Meanwhile, a second application to convert another property at 149 Lower Oxford Street into a HMO is awaiting a decision.It has so far attracted more than 30 objections.