PLANS to transform a part of a vacant shop in Shotton into an eight-bedroom home will be decided on next week.

Flintshire Council’s planning committee is to consider the change of use application for the premises at Chester Road West in the town, retaining the ground floor retail section of the property.

The building has been vacant for some time and the applicant proposes the renovation of the property to reinstate a retail unit on the ground floor at the front of the building back into use as A1 (shops) / A2 (financial and professional services) use.

An eight-bedroom HMO is proposed at the rear and on the first and second floors. Six bedrooms are proposed to have ensuite bathrooms and two bedrooms would share a bathroom.

An open plan kitchen, dining and living area would be available for all residents. The total number of occupants would not exceed eight with only one occupant per bedroom.

The application has been referred to the planning committee by ward councillor, Shotton West Cllr Sean Bibby (Lab) due to concerns about overcrowding, over-development and the increasing number of HMO’s (houses of multiple occupation) having a detrimental effect on the town.

Shotton Town Council has maintained its objections to all HMO properties within the area, and have concerns about overcrowding within the property and potential issues within the immediate vicinity.

Members of the town council would prefer such properties to be Council/Housing association controlled in order to maintain standards.

But the application has been recommended for approval.

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A report to be read by members of the planning committee states: “The application is considered acceptable in policy terms and will not detrimentally affect the living conditions of future occupiers, and will not have an adverse effect on the character and appearance of the property or on the highway.”

The report, written by Flintshire Council’s chief planning officer Andrew Farrow, says there is a demand for this type of development in the area, to help reduce homelessness and reliance on temporary accommodation

It states: “The demand for single person accommodation is great across the county, particularly in the major towns including Shotton, so there is a need for this type of property.

“There is a significant number of single person homeless applicants with over one hundred in temporary accommodation, the majority of which are one bedroom need.

“The provision of self-contained bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and kitchen basics within the context of well managed lounge/communal facilities is supported by Welsh Government as meanwhile’ provision.

“This of course also presumes that such HMO's are well managed as well and comply with the highest fire safely requirements.”

Flintshire Council’s planning committee will meet to decide the application on Wednesday (March 29).