The Southampton Federation of Residents’ Associations had a public meeting on 29th June. This was an opportunity to raise all the perennial problems such as nightly disturbance when the pubs close at 2 am, the piles of rubbish left by students when then they go home at the end of the year, which been made much worse by the strike. The council official in the hot seat at the meeting was Chris Lyons, the City Council’s Development Manager. A major concern of the S.F.R.A. has been the changing character of an area as houses are taken over for student occupation. To control this, the City Council has made an Article 4 Direction covering the whole of Southampton. Change of use from a private dwelling house to a house in multiple occupation (HMO) will require planning consent. It may come as a surprise to learn that if a house owner acquires two unrelated lodgers, this will be a change to an HMO requiring planning consent. The Direction comes into force on 23rd March 2012, but is not retrospective.