The proposal involved changing three existing three-bedroom flats, located at Maritime House in St Helen's Street, into HMOs. Ipswich Borough Council refused the application and the decision was later challenged on appeal. In the inspector's ruling, they accepted that the scheme would not result in the loss of family housing, noting the proposal involved flats rather than houses. He also found no material harm from the lack of private outdoor amenity space, as none of the flats currently benefit from that. However, the inspector agreed with the council that allowing all three flats to become HMOs would undermine efforts to control their spread.