A shelter for the homeless in Wisbech – opened five years ago with help from a £250,000 Government grant but closed when funding ran out- has won permission to operate as a privately run House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).
Businessman Bryan Muthwill of Wisbech St Mary has succeeded in his planning application to convert 17 Norfolk Street from a shelter for the homeless to a retail shop on the ground floor and a five-person HMO on the first and second floors.
Wisbech Town Council objected claiming inadequate provision for waste bin storage and suggesting “an inadequate level of welfare, i.e. kitchen and barroom facilities for the likely number of occupiers”.
The council also questioned the lack of off street parking and said “there appears no means of fire escape”.
The council said they were keen to see the building refurbished but not through the grant of planning for the current scheme.
Planning officers, who agreed the application, said the amendments had been made to the scheme but their objections remained the same.
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