Article 4 direction - King Street
Direction for the King Street area of Chester
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) can provide an affordable type of housing for tenants looking for accommodation in an area as well as contributing to the overall mix of housing types and tenures available. High concentrations of HMOs can cause an imbalance in communities, which can sometimes have a detrimental impact on neighbourhoods.
The King Street area of Chester is one such area where numbers of occupants within HMOs when added to numbers of occupants of purpose built student accommodation are affecting the balance of the community. For this reason, the Council has changed the planning rules relating to further proposed HMOs in this area. The change means that a planning application must be submitted when a family home (Use Class C3) is being converted into to a HMO occupied by three to six unrelated people (Use Class C4). This planning control is called an Article 4 Direction.
The introduction of an Article 4 Direction will allow the Council to assess, on a case by case basis, whether applications for the creation of new HMOs are acceptable or not in planning terms. The change will not affect existing HMOs, but it will help to control the number of new HMOs created.
On 8 April 2015 the Council made a non-immediate Article 4 Direction for the King Street area of Chester. The Direction was subject to three weeks of public consultation, which ended on 7 May 2015. No representations were received during this period. The Direction was confirmed on 12 November 2015. The Direction came into force on 2 May 2016.
- Public Notice - Article 4 Direction confirmation (PDF, 54.9KB)
- Article 4 Direction (PDF, 276KB)
- Article 4 Direction (PDF, 11.4KB) - accessible version of text only of the Article 4 Direction. The definitive Direction as confirmed is the scan copy above with dates, seals and signatures shown.
- Article 4 Direction boundary (PDF, 276KB) - it has not been possible to tag this document for technical reasons.
- Frequently asked questions (PDF, 34.5KB)
- Executive meeting 9 March 2015 (see item 112)
- General information on HMOs including licensing requirements