YET another student house is on the way to St John's - despite concerns the area's character is being steadily eroded.

Worcester City Council's planning committee has decided that 18 Solitaire Avenue can become a four-bed House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) after a heated debate.

It comes despite a council crackdown being introduced two years ago which 'capped' the number of HMOs to 10 per cent 'within a 100 metre radius'.

The decision over Solitaire Avenue takes the surrounding proportion to 9.4 per cent, narrowly under the limit for it being automatically blocked.

Councillor Chris Cawthorne turned up during the committee meeting to voice her dismay over it.

"We first became aware of this issue walking down the road, as me and Richard (Councillor Richard Udall) often do on a Sunday," she said.

"We asked people 'how are you' and they all said 'fine, if it wasn't for the students', that was in Stanley Road.

"This development will take it to 9.43 per cent, I accept that's under the 10 per cent threshold, but it is very close.

"In five years time it won't be a student house, but it'll have been converted - it changes the area completely."

But her appeal split the committee, which voted the conversion through 5-4.

Cllr Alan Amos said: "These type of developments always cause problems.

"This is a really nice family home and we're converting it into a HMO, that bothers me.

"It degrades other properties. We need to think about the character of the area."

But Cllr Paul Denham said the 10 per cent rule, known as Article 4, was "very clear".

"We can't turn down this application if its compliant with our own policies," he said.

"At the end of the day HMOs exist because there is a market for them, people need to live somewhere, and many of them need to live in a shared house.

"We don't know if they will be students. There are no 'material' planning reasons to turn this down."

Cllr Alan Feeney said: "This whole thing reeks of 'we're approving it because we can't find a reason to refuse it', I won't hide behind a bit of tick box bureaucracy."

Cllr Elaine Williams said HMOs are changing St John's "markedly" but Cllr Chris Mitchell, planning committee chairman, urged them to not "generalise" students.