CRAM calls for urgent resolution to Derry HMO crisis
‘One year after the LDP was adopted, draft boundaries have still not been brought forward for consultation’ - CRAM
Derry campaign group Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM) has called on Derry City and Strabane District Council’s planning department to “urgently resolve” what it described as the “houses in multiple occupation (HMOS) crisis”.
A CRAM spokesperson said it was “urging” councillors and the Council's planning department “to take immediate action to address a planning appeals crisis that is seeing refused HMO applications overturned by the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC)”.
“The root of the problem lies in the Council’s contentious interim HMO cap within the Local Development Plan (LPD), which permits up to 30% of dwellings on a street to be approved as HMOs,” they added.
In response to CRAM’s campaign and mounting evidence of the damaging impact of rapidly increasing HMO numbers in some neighbourhoods, the Council adopted a corporate approach supporting a reduced interim threshold of 10% HMOs per street.
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“Although CRAM welcomed that decision at the time, we warned that the conflicting 10% and 30% thresholds would leave refusals open to challenge,” said the spokesperson.
“The Council maintained that its commitment to a 10% limit would carry sufficient ‘weight’ during any PAC appeal,” they added.
“However, CRAM would argue that this has not materialised, with every successful appeal decision relying on the 30% threshold contained within the LDP. This leaves our streets increasingly vulnerable to further HMO saturation.
“The absence of potential HMO Management Areas (HMOMA) is also referred to by PAC commissioners.
“HMOMAs are intended to provide a more targeted approach to managing HMO concentration by limiting streets within the area at 30%, and streets outside at 10%.
“CRAM questions why, one year after the LDP was adopted, draft boundaries have still not been brought forward for consultation. The urgent need to identify these areas was known at the time of the LDP adoption, yet progress has not been fast enough to provide the clarity required by the PAC,” said the spokesperson.
“So, in the meantime, PAC commissioners are being asked to determine individual HMO appeals within a planning framework where the Council’s preferred 10% threshold conflicts with the adopted LDP’s 30% cap, and where there is still no clarity as to whether a proposed HMO would fall within a future HMO Management Area or outside one,” they added.
"CRAM has consistently warned that embedding a 30% HMO threshold in the Local Development Plan was a serious mistake.
“Local councillors unanimously recognised the problems this was creating and attempted to protect communities by adopting a 10% approach, but this has not provided the level of protection required.
‘The root of the problem lies in the Council’s contentious interim HMO cap within the Local Development Plan (LPD), which permits up to 30% of dwellings on a street to be approved as HMOs’
“Developers can appeal decisions to Belfast and are winning these cases because the Council's own planning policy allows up to 30% HMO concentration on every street. The result is that local decisions are being repeatedly overturned, leaving communities frustrated and feeling powerless.
“This situation undermines the role of local decision-making, leaving the views and needs of communities vulnerable to a process that gives greater weight to developer interests than to the concerns of local residents,” said the spokesperson.
They added: “Despite previously being told that the Local Development Plan could not be amended, the Council has, one year later, begun reviewing and revising its HMO policies.
“CRAM welcomes this as a significant step forward. However, it believes the recently published timetables for updating the LDP HMO policies and progressing the Local Policies Plan (LPP) are far too slow given the acknowledged importance of the issue.
“CRAM is calling for the issue to be treated as a planning priority and for the stronger protections residents have been promised to be brought forward without delay.
“In particular, we want the Council's planning department to accelerate both the review of the LDP and the preparation of the Local Policies Plan so that stronger HMO policies can be introduced as quickly as possible.
“CRAM would warn that communities cannot afford further delay.
“Every week of inaction leaves local planning decisions vulnerable to appeal while allowing further expansion of HMOs and short-term lets in neighbourhoods already under significant pressure, undermining community cohesion and the long-term sustainability of established residential areas,” said the spokesperson.
They added: "We understand the statutory timescales the Council must follow during certain stages of amending the Local Development Plan.
“However, we believe there are also multiple opportunities to shorten the overall process through better forward planning and a greater sense of urgency.”