Controversial plans to convert a six-bedroom home into a nine-bed house share have been rejected after receiving nearly 100 responses.

A proposal was submitted to Ipswich Borough Council in July, which suggested that a house in Colchester Road, a short distance from Ipswich Hospital, could become a house of multiple occupation (HMO) with nine bedrooms.

The plans have attracted much debate amongst neighbours with 98 letters and comments  submitted to the council regarding the application.

Many of those who objected to the plans raised concerns over parking in the Colchester Road and the neighbouring streets.

One resident wrote: “This is a family neighbourhood and [it] is not in keeping with this area. There is insufficient parking for six cars, let along nine.

“It is not fair on the neighbours and the surrounding roads that are already impacted from hospital parking.”

Another wrote: “It will adversely affect the parking in Crofton Road which already has significant issues with cars blocking the pavement for pedestrians and at times also preventing access for emergency vehicles and services such as refuse collection and deliveries.”

Not all the commenters objected. One wrote: “There are (to my knowledge) no other HMOs in the immediate area, so a property such as this which would support NHS workers a stone’s throw from the hospital is exactly what the public requires.”

However, the council rejected this application Thursday.

In a notice explaining its decision, the council said that plans had originally included five car parking spaces, but this had to be reduced to four. It explained that, not only did this not meet the minimum requirement of spaces, but that one of these spaces would be at a right angle to two others, effectively “blocking them in”.

The council continued: “No street parking is available on Colchester Road, which has parking restrictions at all times being a busy major route around the edge of the town.

“Whilst Suffolk County Council Highways has not objected on ground of highway safety, Colchester Road is a very busy road and the potential need to manoeuvre up to four vehicles on and off a site where double parking would be necessary to accommodate those vehicles is not considered acceptable.”