PLANS to convert another York home to student housing are set to go before a council planning committee next week.

An application to transform a property in Barstow Avenue, off Hull Road, has been called in by councillors for a decision.

Planning officers recommended the plans for the property were approved, despite letters of complaint from nearby residents who felt there was already too much student accommodation in the area.

Neighbour Irene Linfoot, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, said the conversion of the two-bedroom semi-detached house into a five-bedroom student home would have a harmful effect on her recovery.

“I’ve been having chemotherapy for two years now, and it really takes it out of me,” said Mrs Linfoot, 66.

“Rest is essential to my recovery, and I don’t believe that will be possible if walls start getting knocked down next door.

“The state of some of the properties owned by landlords round here is already causing my husband and I a lot of stress.”

Mrs Linfoot also feared the plans could affect the structural integrity of her house, and had been advised by her local councillor to prepare photographs of her property before any work took place, in case any damage is done in future.

Another letter from a nearby resident stated the proposed sizes of the five individual rooms being proposed breached council regulations on minimum spaces for student living quarters.

The 2009/10 Code of Best Practice for Student Accommodation document, produced by the council in partnership with York’s two universities, letting agencies and landlords, stated rooms should be a minimum of 6.5 square metres, or ten square metres where there is no separate living room.

However the plans proposed for the Barstow Avenue property stated that the five bedrooms would provide less than six square metres of bedroom space each.

A City of York Council spokesperson said while some parts of the code were legal requirements, the minimum room sizes were only recommendations which could not be enforced by the council.

Last week, the council turned down an application to create hundreds of purpose-built student flats on the site of the old dairy on Hull Road on the advice of planning officers who considered them overdevelopment of the area.