Refusing to let revamp go down pan

Greg Davey, aged 36, is angry that council planners have rejected his application for 6 Queen's Road '“ but he intends to go ahead with the reconversion, anyway.

The council rejected the application on the grounds that it would mean a loss of low-cost accommodation in the town centre, contrary to the Local Plan.

Mr Davey, who bought the semi-detached Victorian villa about five months ago, said: "A fuss is made when someone wants to turn a single dwelling into a multi-occupancy one; you don't expect the council to make difficulties for you when it's the other way round.

"We aim to spend about 25,000 on making the house and garden look good, no expense spared, and reinstating its finer features.It is a lovely, three-storey building, from about the turn of the last century, but it is in a disgusting condition now.

"There are eight sitting rooms, and one of them even has a working toilet in the ground-floor lounge. I understand there has been no hot water for the past four years."

He continued: "All the residents shared amenities.

The building got into such a state that it was no good for the area at all."

Mr Davey said he had been caught up in bureaucracy with the council's planning, housing and policy departments, with each of them saying different things.

Mr Davey said he did not intend to live in the house himself and would probably be letting it at some stage.

James Appleton, the borough's assistant director (planning services), said the council had been confused by some aspects of Mr Davey's application.

But if a precedent were set by allowing Mr Davey's application, others would follow suit and this would adversely affect the supply of smaller and cheaper accommodation in the town. The borough's development control committee was told that the house had been converted into multiple occupation in 1991.