Jesmond street that is 94% student housing set to lose one of three remaining family homes

Newcastle City Council has signed off on plans that will see another property in Sunbury Avenue converted into a house in multiple occupation (HMO). Once complete, the move will mean that 49 of the street’s 51 homes will have been turned into student living quarters.

Fears have been aired in the past about the near-total dominance of HMOs on Sunbury Avenue, which is next to West Jesmond Metro station, and the idea that a street had effectively become unsuitable for families to live in.

The growth of Jesmond’s student population over the years and resulting complaints over noise and anti-social behaviour has been debated for years.

City council bosses previously imposed restrictions known as an Article 4 direction in 2011, preventing developers from turning homes in the upscale suburb into a HMO without the developer obtaining planning permission first.

But the authority’s planning committee voted on Friday in favour of allowing the only remaining family home on the north side of Sunbury Avenue to be converted into a five-bed HMO.

Its owners, former North Jesmond Labour councillor Tanya Prestwell and her husband, said their home of 34 years was now too big for their needs but they were struggling to sell it.

Mrs Prestwell told the committee that they had only had four viewings since putting their property on the market last year and that potential buyers were being put off by the idea of being surrounded by so many student homes, adding that she had come to the conclusion that it was “not longer suitable” for a family.

But Ralph Tatt, of the Jesmond Residents Association, alleged that the house had been “deliberately overpriced” when put on the market in order to justify its conversion into a HMO and insisted the house could be sold to a family if its price was lowered.

He also claimed that council planners had ignored the objections of Northumbria Police, who warned that converting the property “denies the wider community of Jesmond the opportunity to improve the area and is unacceptable in crime and disorder and problem solving terms”.

Sitting North Jesmond councillor Philip Browne, a Liberal Democrat, called it “defeatist” to believe that the street had been “lost” and said that it did not simply belong to the students who live there, but to the wider community who use it to get between east and west Jesmond, access the Metro, schools, the swimming pool, and shops.

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Having been told that this would be only the third house in Jesmond turned into a HMO since the Article 4 direction was imposed, Labour’s Barry Phillipson said the policy had been effective.

But he said it was “clear to me that this street has by default been lost to HMOs” before its introduction and the council had a “duty of care” to the remaining owner-occupiers.

Coun Phillipson added: “I think the only thing that is now out of keeping with the street is that there are three residential properties left in it.”

The committee voted by a four to three margin to approve the HMO conversion, with its Labour members in support and three Lib Dems opposed.