The part-conversion of a Mansfield hotel into a house with multiple tenants has been approved after police found no ongoing crime issues from similar properties nearby.
The owners of Mansfield Lodge Hotel, on Woodhouse Road, lodged plans to convert part of the site into a House of Multiple Occupancy, known in planning terms as an HMO, earlier this year and had hoped for a decision in August.
However, Mansfield District Council’s planning committee deferred the application after several residents raised concerns over crime and anti-social behaviour from existing HMOs in their area.
The August committee was told the area is “already imbalanced” by HMOs on both Woodhouse Road and Park Avenue, with the properties creating a “transient community” and leading to regular calls to Nottinghamshire Police.
The concerns led to calls from councillors for more information from the police.
Now the application has gone before the committee again, after Nottinghamshire Police provided a response and addressed issues with HMO crime.
The force said it raised no objections to the plan and had no concerns, with research undertaken on police systems and conversations with the local beat team finding no particular issues with crime.
Committee members voted to pass the plans when they met on Monday 25 October.
The development will now be allowed to progress.
It means part of the property, located at 27 Woodhouse Road, will be changed into a 20-bed HMO spread across three floors.
It will feature four communal kitchens and most bedrooms will include en-suite facilities.
Eleven car parking spaces will be available on-site along with a secure cycle store, and the existing patio and garden will remain.
The remainder of the building, at 28 Woodhouse Road, will be retained for use at a hotel.
At the August meeting, councillors were told the long-term owner planned the conversion after increased competition from new hotels in Mansfield town centre.
A new Travelodge has already been built, and plans have also been approved for a 100-bed hotel on the new Stockwell Gateway development.
Darren Fletcher, partner and manager of Mansfield Lodge Hotel, told the committee he plans to work with Nottinghamshire Police to install CCTV now the application has been approved.
He added: “The police report highlighted there is only a small proportion of crime directly involved with HMOs.
“HMOs aren’t a big crime like everybody proposes them to be. This application could be a great pilot or indicator for other developments, a hybrid situation of half hotel, half HMO.”
He added the company has a “prospective buyer” for the site, but if any sale falls through, he will oversee and manage both the HMO and hotel.
A resident spoke in the meeting to re-assert the community’s concerns over crime, adding “oversaturation [of HMOs] benefits no-one”, but councillors favoured the consultation response from Nottinghamshire Police.
The plans were approved by six votes to three.
