A PLAN to build a bigger extension on a controversial home in Worcester has been turned down by the council.

Councillors approved a plan to build an extension to add an extra room to an existing five-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO) in Martley Road last year with landlords Bidsid almost immediately going back to Worcester City Council with a new plan to build an extra bedroom.

However, the latest plan has been turned down by the city council for failing to provide enough outdoor space.

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Planners said the move to build another storey to the home – which was called “ugly” by councillors before work to build a single-storey extension – was unacceptable.

The council said it sticks to a rule of 20 square metres of garden or private outdoor space per bedroom for each home which building another extension would reduce even further.

The council said previous plans had been approved using measurements that ignored the extension approved last year – which meant the plan appeared to have more outdoor space than it did – and the front ‘garden’, which faces Martley Road, is mostly covered in tarmac and would be used for parking, which meant it could not be classed, or even used, as a garden.

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Last year, the council’s planning committee gave the green light to a ground-floor extension despite labelling the house of multiple occupation (HMO) “absolutely monstrous, hideous and ugly.”

The then four-bed home on the corner of Martley Road and Fern Road was converted into a five-bed HMO in 2019 before another plan to add another two bedrooms was put forward and eventually withdrawn in May last year.

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Speaking at a meeting of the city council’s planning committee in the Guildhall in August last year, Cllr Owen Cleary said: “I just want to go on record to say that I think it is absolutely monstrous and hideous but I’m not sure we can actually refuse it.”

Planning vice chair Cllr Pat Agar agreed saying: “I think a lot of us think it looks pretty ugly. I don’t think we can refuse it because we think it’s ugly, but it certainly is ugly.”

Despite the disdain for the design, councillors said they could not find a reason to reject the application with planning chair Cllr Chris Mitchell begrudgingly admitting it was ‘probably an improvement.’