The Audenshaw street ‘at risk of becoming a Victorian slum’

A street in Audenshaw is at risk of becoming like a ‘Victorian slum’ due to the number of houses of multiple occupation (HMO), a resident has claimed.

Plans to extend a current HMO on Manchester Road from six bedrooms to  seven has sparked controversy locally. Tameside Council’s planning panel refused the extension of the two-storey, mid-terrace, house on the grounds of overdevelopment and the potential impact on neighbours.

Steven Powell, a resident speaking at a planning meeting in Droylsden, explained this is one of four HMOs on a street of 16 homes.

“There is a great deal of fly-tipping taking place at the moment,” he told the panel in Guardsman Tony Downes House. “We regularly find bags of used beer cans and takeaways. Bins are left overflowing and often not collected. We have a number of antisocial behaviour problems in the area.”

He went on to say that young people from the HMOs gather on the green spaces ‘at all times of day and night’. Despite council planning officers recommending approval for the proposal, tabled by  Mr N Quinlan, the planning panel were irked by the idea.

Coun Doreen Dickinson said: “I think we’re going into the Victorian slum era with HMOs. The report says that it doesn’t really fit with our way, but we’ll kind of accept it here.

“I don’t agree with that.”

She went on to argue the plan would disrupt neighbours with excess noise. Coun Adrian Pearce added that he thought the extension classes as overdevelopment. 

They refused the proposal with a unanimous vote.

Other matters on the cards for the panel included a 14-home housing development off Egmont Street in Mossley; a new two-bedroom home off Oldham Road in Ashton; and nine industrial units off Binns Street in Stalybridge. All three were approved by the planning panel with little controversy.