THE owner of a shop has asked for permission to convert a number of flats into a house of multiple occupation (HMO) despite it already existing for more than two-and-a-half-years.

Shop owner Tirath Singh, who owns Costcutters on the junction of Solitaire Avenue and Oldbury Road, has asked Worcester City Council for permission to convert flats above the shop into a four-bedroom HMO despite already carrying out the work in January 2017.

Several objections were raised by fed-up neighbours concerned by the level of HMOs in the area.

Pauline Thomas, who has lived in Solitaire Avenue for 35 years, said the area already enough HMOs and noise was regularly at an “unacceptable level.”

She said it was a “myth” that eight car parking spaces would be made available to residents as they were already used by visitors to the shop, according to a formal objection submitted to city council planners.

In the objection, she said: "Parking is always a problem as friends of the student population park anywhere during the day and night and do not respect the yellow lines on the road, which is supposed to restricts parking, this also applies to customers at the shop and young cyclists."

Sal Bateman of Penhill Crescent said: "This application would exceed the 10 per cent maximum rule for HMOs in a given area.

"The residents of this building have caused noise and nuisance to neighbours with excessive consumption of alcohol and putting chairs out of an upstairs window on to the flat roof, using it as a balcony.

"There is not enough parking provided, the immediate area already suffers congestion from student parking, there are parking restrictions on the road outside the property and all nearby roads."

Councillor Richard Udall, who represents St John's, said that if the plan was approved it would mean 21 per cent of the buildings within 100 metres of the shop would be HMOs.

He said: "That means this application shouldn't be approved as there is already a considerable number of HMOs in the area and this is something that we are really trying to avoid."

Mrs Rouse of Solitaire Avenue, who also objected to the plan, said: "I am concerned about parking as Solitaire Avenue gets a lot of cars from the university plus four cottages in Oldbury Road are restricted to parking times and they also park in Solitaire Avenue."