First Blood Drawn in the HMO Wars

Smithfield Hotel: First Skirmish in the HMO War

They came, they saw, they recommended approval. Shropshire Council’s planning officers, clipboard warriors of the realm, thought that converting the Smithfield Hotel into a 22-bed HMO was a brilliant idea. After all, it was “an unused building in a sustainable location.” Translation: we can dump people here and hope nobody notices.

Alas, their plan went gloriously wrong. For once, the Northern Planning Committee decided to flex its democratic biceps. Unanimously, no less. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief echoing down Salop Road: “At last, councillors who noticed that parking, waste disposal, and basic living standards actually matter!”
But let’s not get carried away. This was merely the first battle of a long campaign.

Enter Duncan Kerr, the Lone Green Musketeer

Full credit where it’s due. Duncan Kerr, the only Green in the village, delivered a passionate speech that rattled the committee chairs. His outrage was palpable: how could officers recommend this scheme when smaller, less audacious ones had already been refused? A six-bedder in Cross Street went down in flames, yet this 22-bed behemoth was meant to sail through?

Kerr’s intervention worked. For one shining moment, common sense triumphed. The Smithfield HMO was rejected on all the obvious grounds: over-intensity, inadequate facilities, parking chaos, bin-bag mountains, and the small matter of heritage.

The Lassy and Joe Show

Outside the meeting, though, the applicants – one “Lassy” (aka Jassy Sidhu of Your Property Ventures) – were spotted chin-wagging with planning consultant Joe Salt. They looked… well, rather chipper. That’s because they know the script: when you lose the first round, you file an appeal. Planning by war of attrition – wear them down until apathy wins.

Joe dutifully told the meeting that the Smithfield plan “exceeds the council’s HMO guidelines.” Quite right. It exceeds them in the same way that squeezing 22 people into a house exceeds the definition of “home comfort.”

This Is Not the End

Let’s be under no illusion: this is only the first skirmish. The war is far from over. As long as the Home Office is desperately outsourcing asylum accommodation, the demand for HMOs will keep rising. If the asylum hotels are filling up, where next? Why, into hastily converted HMOs of course – because nothing says “compassion” quite like shoehorning people into former pubs and hotels under the noble banner of “affordable housing.

From this – To this

So yes, we may have won this round. But Lassy will be back. With consultants, glossy brochures, and a very expensive appeal form. The rubber dinghies may land on the beaches, but the end destination is often right here in our market towns, dressed up as “sustainable development.”

Keep Fighting

The Smithfield vote shows what happens when local councillors finally grow a backbone. But let’s not pretend the war is over. The developers are circling, the officers are recommending, and the Home Office is quietly grateful.

This is our town. Not theirs, not Serco’s, not the property speculators’. The moment we stop resisting, Oswestry will be sliced up, parcelled out, and sold back to us as “low-cost housing.”

Keep fighting. Because if we don’t, the invasion won’t just be on Salop Road – it will be on every road.