Bolton: Ruling on Forester Hill Avenue, Great Lever HMO plan

This comes after Bolton Council gave the go-ahead for the house on Forester Hill Avenue in Great Lever to be turned into an eight-bedroom house in multiple occupation (HMO).

No extra car parking space had been proposed but planning officials ruled that the development was unlikely to affect the traffic situation in the area.

A council report said: “The council’s highways officer has commented that from experience, HMO use normally lends itself to a demographic with low car ownership and more towards the use of sustainable travel patterns.

“The location of the property is reasonably accessible to sustainable modes of transportation and the town centre of Bolton and its amenities.

The plans have been approved by Bolton Council (Image: Munshi+Partners)

“Any potential additional overspill parking onto the surrounding highways at that location in comparison to the extant residential use of the property should be minimal and should be accommodated with little additional detriment/severity to road safety and residential amenity.

“On this basis, no reasonable objections on highways grounds to what is being proposed under this application.”

Developments like this have often proved contentious not only because of the effect on parking spaces but also because of concerns about overcrowding and potential anti-social behaviour.

Forester Hill Avenue, Great Lever (Image: Google Maps)

For this reason, proposals to create housing like this has often met with objections from people living nearby.

But council planning officers felt that this was more likely to be an issue in areas with high numbers of shared houses, which is not the case in this part of Great Lever.

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Their report said: “Residents have raised concerns about the potential for the HMO to unbalance the community and to attract anti-social behaviour and increase crime.

“Whilst these are valid considerations and were considered in a 2008 Communities and Local Government evidence gathering document on housing in multiple occupation and possible planning responses it was generally found that these issues were prevalent where there are high concentrations of HMOs, which is not the case in this instance.”

The plan for Forester Hill Avenue was first put before Bolton Council on Wednesday September 22 this year.

The decision was taken to approve the plan on Thursday December 7.