Please sign our petition

Members of the One Voice Queensway East Residents Association have real concerns about the safety and well being of local residents.  They are seeing more and more properties being converted to Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) by unscrupulous landlords.  This is placing vulnerable people at risk as well as bringing anti-social behavior into the area.

We the undersigned want Southend Borough Council to impose Article 4 Directions on the areas covered by the Association:

Hastings Road, Kilworth Ave, Cromer Rd, Hillcrest Rd, Toledo Rd, Quebec Rd, with a view to imposing this Borough-wide.

By doing this the council will have more control over housing stock through their ability to control the density of HMO's in the area and also, in the case of conservation areas, this allows them to consider the impact any development might have on the character of that area (not just HMO’s)  

What is an Article 4 Direction? Article 4 Directions are the legal means by which a local authority can require property owners to seek permission to convert a single dwelling house into a small HMO

Article 4 Directions are one of the tools available to local planning authorities in responding to the particular needs of their areas. They do this by allowing authorities to withdraw the ‘permitted development’ rights that would otherwise apply by virtue of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 as amended (the ‘GDPO’). An Article 4 Direction does not prevent the development to which it applies, but instead requires that planning permission is first obtained from the local planning authority for that development. In the case of conservation areas, this process allows for the consideration of the impact of the proposed development on the character and appearance of the conservation area.

for more information about the One Voice - Queensway East Residents Association, go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/314944669650217/?ref=share