Developers have been prevented from renting out the basement of a terraced house in Northampton to students after councillors said it would be like “living in a cell”.
Kingsley-based Key Homes applied to Northampton Borough Council for permission to use the basement of a house in Cloutsham Street, The Mounts, as a student bedroom.
But members of the authority’s planning committee opposed the development. They said they feared the room, which would have only been lit by a window at street-level and would include an internal ladder as a fire escape, would not have been safe for people to sleep in.
Councillor Dennis Meredith (Lib Dem, Talavera) said: “I’m not happy with this. I don’t want it to be on my conscience if there is a serious accident inside that room.”
He was backed by fellow planning committee members, including Councillor Lee Mason (Lab, Brookside), who said: “I wouldn’t be happy for any child of mine to be staying in that room.”
Councillor Jamie Lane (Con, Boothville) added: “It’s not a room, it’s a cell.”
The Cloutsham Street property already has planning permission for five students to live there, but councillors thought allowing six would be an over-development.
Speaking for Key Homes, Sarah Lindsay-Bell argued that more student properties were needed in the town centre because of the University of Northampton’s plans to relocate to a site near Becket’s Park in the future. She also said increasing the number of bedrooms in the Cloutsham Street house to six would make it easier to rent out to students. But the planning committee voted unanimously to block the development.