Cathays in Cardiff has been home to 62-year-old Nic Hawkins for almost half of his life.
When Nic first moved to the area 30 years ago, there were at least 15 families occupying houses nearby. Now, there is only one.
Nic is one of the suburb's residents who have described life there as a 'nightmare', with figures obtained by WalesOnline showing that more than half of the city's shared housing is located in the ward.
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A number of residents and councillors have described issues with parking, noise, a lack of green space and a feeling of two separate communities. It comes as residents previously described life in the area "like living in someone else's holiday camp". You can read more on that here.
Latest figures show that out of the 2,828 HMOs (house in multiple occupation) in the city, 1,872 are in the ward of Cathays.
“The shoppers don’t come anymore as there is nowhere to park, which has ruined Crwys Road as a shopping area because it’s mostly fast food outlets. We no longer have newsagents, fruit and veg stalls - it’s all fast food stores,” said Tewkesbury Street resident Nic.
“Even the supermarket, the Co-op, has closed down.”
Nic added: “Thirty years ago, there were, within shouting distance of my house, at least 15-20 families occupying houses. Now, there is one.”
Nic said that parking has become a major issue and that he is “extremely angry” about the number of HMOs in the area.
“I don’t have a designated space outside my house. Cars are left outside there for sometimes two or three weeks in one spot outside my house,” he said.
Nic said that he struggles to park his car on the street, and is unable to park in surrounding streets as his parking permit is only for Tewkesbury Street.
He added that when he has asked people to adjust their parking on the street to allow more rooms for others to park, he has received “a mouthful of abuse.”
Nic, who is disabled, said it took him six months to get a blue badge, and that he is attempting to get a disabled space outside his house.
Nic said that most of the HMOs nearby are occupied by students.
“The students’ behaviour can be disgusting, rude, and obscene. We have times when they have a party, where the party spills out onto the street where bottles get smashed.
“The language is disgusting. Both boys and girls urinating in the street. When you approach them to calm down and get back into the house, you get a load of abuse.”
Nic says that he and other residents have raised their concerns about HMOs with Cardiff council.
“I think they should not only regulate [the number of HMOs], they should start closing them down,” he said.
“Some of us simply can’t afford to move house. We’re prisoners.”
He continued: “Some houses are let to working professionals, but they are just as bad.”
Nic says that he has experienced drunk people banging on his door in the night, mistaking his house for their friends’
An FOI submitted to the Vale of Glamorgan Council - which delivers the Shared Regulatory Service that holds information on the number of HMOs in Cardiff - has revealed that, out of a total of 2,828 HMOs in the city, 1,872 are in the ward of Cathays - the area with the most shared occupancy houses.
Cardiff Council is introducing a zonal parking scheme in Cathays to increase the number of resident spaces and eliminate all unrestricted parking, aiming to give more parking to residents with a permit.
The system will allow drivers to park on a number of streets in Cathays that come under C1, C2, C3 or C4, rather than just their own street and will also get rid of unrestricted parking. This means that non-residents can't park in most of these four zones, and a few spaces will be limited to two hours for non-residents. These restrictions will not apply to permit holders.
Paul, a 43-year-old Cathays resident who moved to the area in 2018, also says that parking had become an issue for residents.
“If you’ve got 60% of houses on a street that are HMOs, and in each of those HMOs are four-to-six people, there simply isn’t the space for everyone who brings their car to park,” he said.
“It affects road safety and access for disabled people. When people park over dropped curbs, if you’re in a wheelchair or mobility aid, you can find yourself literally unable to leave the block.”
He continued: “There are more cars than there is space to park in, and the issue with that is there are so many HMOs trying to fit into the space.”
Paul said that the high number of students living in the area is actually attracted him to living there.
“We liked the idea of a lot of young people, a lot of life to it. But what that creates is a transient population,” he said.
“There’s not really any point in them getting to know their neighbours, and they don’t necessarily think about community which is what longer-term residents are keen on.
“There’s a sweet spot in the percentage of transient versus regular residents that creates a nice blend, and a lot of the streets around here don’t have it.”
Paul added that a local letting agent has ‘Welcome to Studentville’ painted on one of their walls.
“It creates the idea that our local area is a playground, so that has a knock-on effect in terms of general behaviour. People treat it like a party land rather than a place where people live.”
Planning applications to change the use of numbers 82 and 76 Coburn Street in Cathays to C4 House in Multiple Occupancy were submitted in March and May 2021 respectively. The status of both applications is currently listed as 'Unknown,' with planning appeals being received for both after planning permission was refused.
A planning application to change the use of number 48 from a residential dwelling to a seven-person HMO was, however, granted on 25 August, whilst another application to change number 98 from a dwelling house to a six-bedroom HMO was submitted in June, with permission being granted in September.
Councillors for the ward have previously spoken out about the number of HMOs in the suburb.
Cllr Chris Weaver, a councillor for the Cathays ward, told WalesOnline: "We want planning decisions that help support a sustainable community here in Cathays, and that means having a balance of types of households.
"An over-concentration of HMOs leads to more issues with waste and noise nuisance, over-development of properties with less green space, and makes the community more fragmented.
"Cardiff Council has passed policy and Planning Guidance, based on evidence, of the effect of an over-concentration of HMOs, which put a limit on the number of them in a local area to keep that vital balance. Cardiff’s Planning Committee rejected the applications for these houses in Coburn Street based on that, but appeals have been put in by the applicants to the Planning Inspectorate.
"We want the Planning Inspectorate to make their decisions based on Cardiff’s policy and guidance, and to support a sustainable, liveable community here in Cathays by rejecting the appeals to prevent an over-concentration of HMOs."
Cllr Sarah Merry, also a councillor for the Cathays ward, said: "When we were first elected, we had to campaign to get planning legislation changed by Welsh Government – smaller HMOs, the majority in Cathays, at that point didn’t need planning permission. We then had to lobby the council to change its planning guidance and then it feels like the Welsh Planning Inspectorate have been unpicking the policy of a local authority developed through evidence and consulted and decided locally, basically saying that they just don't agree with it.
"I know they refer to the local development plan and we'd like to see that strengthened but our local development plan includes HMOs states we can control where there is cumulative impact and the planning guidance is there to quantify it because previously they were overturning our decisions on the basis that we hadn't specified what cumulative impact was. It just feels like whatever we do they put another hoop to jump through."
Cllr Merry said that she had referred to a WalesOnline article from 2018 which revealed that Cathays was the most densely populated area in Cardiff in a meeting with the Planning Inspectorate.
"Alongside that, those streets are some of the least green in Wales. They have no front gardens, they go straight onto the street and some of the landlords are building over the back gardens, building extensions.
"It goes against the council’s and the Welsh Government’s priorities about wellbeing and the Future Generations Act. I don't see how anybody could say that, with the current population of the area, adding further properties in doesn't increase pressure on the street.
"They've [the Planning Inspectorate] provided no evidence for their theory that no further harm can be done and you can see that if they allowed the first application and then the second one, you could see they're encouraging further 'studentification' as they call it. So they themselves are changing the nature of the area by their actions.
"I think it's absolutely important that they [the Planning Inspectorate] respect the local community. It's not about the anti-student attitude. I think people want to be living in an area where the population is stable and where there's a chance to build a community and not just an extension of the student campus."
Robert David, 75, moved to Maindy Road in 1974 and has lived in Cardiff all his life.
“When I first moved into Maindy Road, there were no student houses - nothing at all,” he said.
He continued: “I don’t blame the students, I blame the council for granting permission for so many HMOs and I blame the landlords who make so much money out of them.”
Robert said that the houses next door to him were previously three-bedroom houses. Like many Cathays residents, he says that parking has become difficult.
“The house next door to me now has been converted into eight bedrooms. The house next door to that has been converted into ten rooms and the number of vehicles attached to those houses is anything between three and eight vehicles. So, it is a nightmare.” he said.
“HMOs are a major problem, and the annoying thing is that I don’t think we can ever change it.”
He continued: “Most of the problems with HMOs reflect on students - I make no apologies for saying it. It’s litter in the streets, it’s noise, it’s parking.
“I’ve lived here 47 years and one student I complained to said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t live in a student area.’ Well, it wasn’t a student area when I first moved in here.”
Robert said that, during lockdown last year, a house occupied by students on his street "smashed" and burned a fence, with the landlords not finding out about it until the academic year had finished.
Robert continued: “You can’t stop young people letting their hair down, but you could stop ten or twelve of them in one house.”
In a clarification, Cardiff Council said that, even if there are eight or 10 people living in an HMO, and it was developed before 2011, the maximum number of permits that one property can have is three. This is the same for any other eligible property that can apply for the scheme.
A Cardiff Council spokesman confirmed that any new build properties or converted homes developed after 2011 are not eligible for the council’s parking permit scheme, so are not allowed to park their car on the roadside in the restricted areas.
HMOs that were developed before 2011 are eligible to apply for the permit parking scheme, but they are restricted to a maximum of three permits, two vehicle specific permits for permanent residents in the household, and one for a visitor permit. The price for the permit does increase if you have more than one vehicle.
The council does investigate any reports of misuse of the permit scheme or any claim of regular misuse by commuters. All of the information on the council’s parking permit scheme can be found her e.
In February 2016, The Welsh Government made changes to the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order to enable each local planning authority to decide whether to adopt local policies in their development plan to control the density and spread of HMOs.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “In 2016 we made legislative changes to allow local planning authorities to decide whether or not to adopt local policies in their development plan which can control the density and spread of HMOs.
“To give full effect to these changes, local planning authorities need to put in place robust evidence based policies in their Local Development Plans against which planning applications for HMOs can be assessed.
“Only the policies in the development plan have legal status in deciding planning applications and any related Supplementary Planning Guidance should only contain guidance and advice in relation to the LDP policy. As such, this can only be taken into account as a material consideration.
“Planning Inspectors must take decisions based on the policies set out in the relevant adopted development plan and any material planning considerations.”
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