A council’s solution to easing a local parking crisis could be to reduce the number of residents’ parking permits it issues by charging more.

Maidstone Borough Council has been responding to concerns raised by Fant and Oakwood ward councillors about the difficulties caused by the growing number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the ward.

The councillors said these homes place undue pressure on on-street parking in a ward whose narrow streets are already heavily congested.

In the first of three committee meetings to decide what to do about what officers called “the perceived problems” of HMOs, members of the environmental committee on Tuesday night were advised that officers intended to start a review of the Controlled Residents’ Parking Zones W1, W2, and W4 in Fant. This is with a view to "developing proposals that would reduce the number of permits being issued.”

In his report, the director of regeneration and place, William Cornall, agreed that Fant’s narrow streets and the lack of off-street parking opportunities could make parking an issue.

But he said it would be difficult to pin the blame on the presence of HMOs, since despite Fant having the second highest number of conversions of any ward in the borough (after High Street ward), they still only represented 2.3% of the total housing stock.

Last year, 1,602 households applied for a resident’s parking permit in one of the three controlled zones. The annual permits currently cost £25 per vehicle.

But, although HMO tenants could apply for one permit each (which could be six or more permits per building), family households could also have up to four with two resident's permits, one visitor permit, and sometimes a carer’s permit.

Mr Cornall suggested that one way to “discourage” the number of permits being issued would be to charge more for second permits, larger vehicles, or polluting vehicles.

Cllr Kimmy Milham (Green), one of three councillors representing Fant, was scathing in her response.

She said: ”That would only push cars on to other areas outside the controlled zones, and people there are angry enough as it is.”

Cllr Clive English (Lib Dem) is the cabinet member who would have to approve any review, but he seemed less than convinced. He said: “A review could have some benefits, but there are potential disbenefits.”

“We have to be aware of the law of unintended consequences.”

Describing it as “quite a thorny issue,” Cllr English suggested there could be some benefit at looking at other parking restrictions, such as reducing permitted waiting times, which he suggested could perhaps discourage any commuter parking - though he conceded: “I’m not sure there is a significant contribution to the problem in Fant from commuter parking.”

Cllr Milham was equally critical of a suggestion that the residents’ parking zones could be expanded. She said: “People won’t want to pay unless they can be guaranteed a place. They won’t want to pay to find they still can’t park. Such a move would just be regarded as a stealth tax.”

She said the solution was that HMO developers should be obligated to provide parking places for their tenants.

Councillors heard that such matters would be considered planning issues rather than parking issues, and would be considered in a Supplementary Planning Documnet (SPD) currently being prepared to go before a different committee.

Nevertheless, Cllr Stan Forecast (Con) proposed that the committee recommend that such an SPD should contain the provision that every future HMO conversion be required to provide one parking space per bedroom.

His motion was seconded by Cllr Tom Cannon (Con) and was approved unanimously.

Statistics released by the borough council show that Maidstone currently has 564 HMOs.

Of those 295 are for four persons or fewer, and they do not require to be licensed.

There are 195 five and six person HMOs, that are required to be licensed, but under current legislation did not require a grant of planning permission to allow conversion.

There are 74 HMOs of seven or more bedrooms, that have beeen granted planning permission and have also had to obtain a licence.

Leeds and Langley is the only ward that has no HMO conversions at all, while Penenden Heath came in a third place with 107 HMOs, three times as many as fourth placed Barming and Teston.