A BID to convert a home into a five bedroom house in multiple occupation has been rejected.

The applicant, a Mr M Miah, sought change of use permission for the property at 4 Nortoft Road in Bournemouth, but ran afoul of council rules governing HMOs.

The borough has a directive allowing officers to block new HMOs in areas where they already make up more than 10 per cent of the housing stock, introduced to help tackle anti-social behaviour in HMO hot spots.

In a report, planning officer Sophie Edwards said: "The number of HMOs in this area has reached a point where the character would be adversely affected to an unacceptable degree."

There were judged to be 71 properties within 100m of the application site in Charminster, of which 11.2 per cent were already registered as HMOs.