RESIDENTS of a Worcester street fear plans to transform a neighbouring guesthouse into flats will add to parking problems near their homes.

The owner of 28 Ombersley Road in Claines wants permission to convert the property into four self-contained flats, after more than 40 years’ use as a guesthouse.

Worcester City Council is due to discuss the application tomorrow at its planning meeting.

The owner of the 10-bedroom bed and breakfast, Paul Smith, has had to close the business due to ill health, and believes the three-storey Victorian-style villa is too large for individual use.

The property is located in an area where the council is now discouraging guesthouses from operating, so Mr Smith’s planning application states this “provides an excellent opportunity to change from guesthouse use to purely residential”.

But people living nearby fear the site’s four parking spaces will not prove sufficient once the flats are occupied.

Worcester City Council’s head of urban environment John Wrightson says in his report: “The main concern of local residents is that this (four parking spaces) would be inadequate to serve the development and would lead to pressure for on–street parking on surrounding congested streets.”

However, Mr Smith says the conversion to flats would reduce the number of cars using the property, which as a guesthouse could have up to 24 people living in it at any one time.

“Neighbours would benefit from a much less intensely occupied use of the building than as a guest B&B,” his application states.

“There would be many fewer comings and goings. Besides, the location is a very sustainable one, where one does not need a car to access daily and weekly services, so only the minimum of parking is needed.”

Highways experts at Worcestershire County Council agree with Mr Smith.

A report by the highways officer says: “Although the parking arrangements are not ideal for separate dwellings, I have to continue to consider that four flats is potentially better than the established use as a 10-room guesthouse, in terms of traffic and parking. Therefore (I have) no objections.”

Consequently, Mr Wrightson is recommending the planning committee approve the changes.

“I concur with the comments of the highway authority that the proposed use would have lesser demand on parking than the existing use,” he says.