A BID to turn a family home into a shared house was rejected because planners were concerned about noise from too many students living in a small area.

Landlord John Wright wanted to turn the three-bedroom property in Standean Close, Coldean, Brighton, into a six-bedroom house in multiple occupation (HMO).

Mr Wright, of Green Ridge, Brighton, applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for permission to make changes including turning the garage into “habitable space”.

The property is in Hollingdean and Stanmer ward where council policy restricts the number of new shared houses.

Planning permission is not normally granted if ten per cent of homes within a 50-metre radius are already HMOs.

A report to the committee yesterday said only two out of 34 homes in the area were HMOs, although this excluded two Brighton University-registered houses.

Committee chairwoman Tracey Hill, who represents Hollingdean and Stanmer ward, said 30 people could end up living in shared houses in the area.

Twelve of them would be in the university houses.

She said: “This is a really unfortunate technical loophole in our legal system.

“If those two university properties were considered HMOs, which to all intents and purposes as far as the neighbours are concerned they are, it would have been refused.”

Councillor Hill said neighbours had complained to the university about noise coming from its student houses.

Green councillor Leo Littman said: “I can understand why this would cause issues in the area but we have run up against an unfortunate legal loophole.

“I question whether we would be on sound ground and whether we can defend ourselves if we turn this down.”

Independent councillor Tony Janio said he sat on the council’s “studentification” scrutiny panel ten years ago and sympathised with residents who had noisy neighbours but there was little that could be done.

He said: “The officers have gone through all the rules.

“There is no way we can refuse this unless we do something obscure.

“The massive demand is out there.

“We are sending messages out to developers that the planning committee is going to try everything it can to try to stop developments in the city.”

The committee voted to turn down the plans on the ground of loss of amenity to people in the area because of the concentration of HMOs.