A hotel boss has re-submitted plans to convert part of his business into a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO).

Mark Smith, director of the Grange Moor Hotel in Maidstone, says a decline in guests since the Covid pandemic has made Grange Park - an annexe previously used as overspill accommodation - unviable.

The building, in St Michael's Road, had on occasion been used by Maidstone council as emergency housing for homeless people, but he said: “This was more costly than helpful, as it damaged the main hotel’s reputation.”

Mr Smith said guests were reluctant to stay in the annexe and face the short walk to the main hotel’s facilities, and as a consequence, there had been a recent period when all the rooms had been empty for five straight weeks.

He said: “We simply cannot continue like this and must concentrate on investing in the main Grange Moor Hotel.”

A previous application, submitted by Grunbros Property, to turn the property into a 14-bed HMO was refused by the council in March.

One of the concerns was that two of the proposed bedrooms were in the basement where there was very little natural light.

Planners also raised issue with the fact there was no communal room.

Now a new application from Smart In Hotels Ltd has been submitted for 13 bedrooms.

This time the basement would be given over to a communal kitchen and lounge area.

Two of the rooms are shown as doubles, meaning the HMO would be occupied by 15 people.

The property lies in Fant - the ward with the highest concentration of HMOs in the borough.

Residents there have previously said they feel “under siege”, and spoke of issues around the number of wheelie bins in their streets, trouble parking and general disruption resulting from the increase in population.

Ward councillor Paul Harper (Fant and Oakwood Independents) has been campaigning for the borough council to crack down on the spread of HMOs and has called in this latest application so it can be debated by the planning committee.

He said: “Unlike the previous application, there are no bedrooms proposed to be placed in the basement, which is positive.

“Nevertheless, the location of the communal facilities in the basement means they will be unattractive spaces.

“The kitchen has no external window and the living area only a substandard window which was the basis for the previous refusal.”

“The proposed plans show a very cramped living environment which probably means that the designer has opted for quantity over quality…”

Cllr Harper was concerned at the lack of outdoor amenity space, with all the land allocated for car parking and bin and bike storage.

He also fears the “continual erosion of the family neighbourhood character of Fant by its over-development with HMOs.”

So far, there has been one public objection lodged against the scheme.

Steve Baker, a neighbour to the hotel annexe, said: “There are numerous studies that have reviewed the impact of HMOs on residential areas and they all agree that they lead to increased noise, increased disruption and increased antisocial behaviour.”

He said the disruption from a 13-bed HMO was “a very different prospect from a hotel with limited occupancy” and also criticised the lack of a garden area.

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He wrote: “The proposed plans show a very cramped living environment which probably means that the designer has opted for quantity over quality.

“Would it not be better for the whole community to have a smaller number of higher quality rooms?”

Under existing legislation, developers have “permitted development rights” to convert any house into a six-bed HMO without planning permission.

Less than two weeks ago, Cllr Harper submitted a motion to Maidstone council calling on it to impose an Article 4 direction in Fant to remove those rights, meaning each application would need to go before the council's planning committee for scrutiny.

He was told by the council’s deputy leader Clive English (Lib Dem) that would be an ineffective measure, as the council still would not have grounds to refuse such applications, and that instead it was working on changes to planning policies, which would help it more effectively regulate HMOs.

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem), the cabinet member with responsibility for planning policy, assured Cllr Harper that he had begun discussions with his planning officers on the subject the day after the formation of the new Green/Lib Dem administration following the local council elections in May.

Cllr Harper said: “That was seven months ago. Meanwhile, it seems almost every week there is a new HMO application in Fant.”

Details of the Grange Park application can be found on the council’s website under reference number 24/504962.

The main Grange Moor Hotel is unaffected by the proposals.