Grange Moor Hotel plan: 42 co-living rooms for up to 65 people on St Michael's Road. 331 comments, the MP opposed, and a council decision due by 4 November.
A plan to turn the closed Grange Moor Hotel on St Michael’s Road into a 42-room house in multiple occupation has drawn 331 comments from the public. Maidstone and Malling MP Helen Grant has also written to oppose it.
The application is still open on the council’s planning portal. Its determination deadline is Wednesday 4 November 2026 (Mid Kent planning portal, 26/502329/FULL).
The portal does not total objections and support separately. We read eight of the comments, spread across the file from August to late September. All eight object.
What is proposed
The application asks to change the building’s use from a hotel to “co-living studio apartments”. In planning terms that is a large HMO. The applicant’s planning statement, by Town & Country Planning Solutions, sets out the scheme (planning statement, August 2026):
- 42 en-suite rooms, 21 on each floor
- 19 single rooms of at least 13.5 square metres
- 23 double rooms of at least 18.5 square metres, for two people each
- shared kitchens, workspaces, a gym, a lounge and a laundry room
- communal gardens with shared allotment spaces
- 42 parking spaces, seven at the front and 35 at the rear, two with EV chargers
- cycle storage and a bin store in the rear car park
Nineteen single rooms and 23 doubles make room for 65 people. The statement elsewhere describes accommodation “for up to 66 people”.
The building is two storeys, in an L shape. As a hotel it had a bar, a restaurant and 38 bedrooms, eight downstairs and 30 upstairs.
Why the hotel closed
The statement says the applicant bought the Grange Moor as a trading hotel in 2023. The business “was failing at the time”. The applicant tried to make it profitable, “but this ultimately proved impossible”. The hotel closed in 2025 and has been empty since.
The statement argues the council has no policy protecting hotels. Its employment-land policy covers offices and industrial uses only. It also points to the former Grange Park Hotel at 9 St Michael’s Road, next door, which was granted permission to become an HMO under application 24/504962/FULL. The statement says that permission has not been carried out.
The 10% test, read two ways
Maidstone’s HMO guidance says a new HMO should not be supported if 10% or more of the properties within 100 metres are already HMOs.
The applicant’s statement counts 29 properties inside that circle and no HMOs. It says the council’s licensing register lists one HMO on the road, at 13 St Michael’s Road, but that it sits outside the 100-metre line. Even counting the Grange Park permission, it puts the share at 3.45%.
Councillor Paul Harper, the Independent councillor for Fant and Oakwood, reads it differently. In his comment on the file he counts 13 properties on St Michael’s Road and says there are already HMOs at numbers 9, 13 and 23, plus a care home. “Therefore the 10% criteria is met,” he wrote. He lists 14 more HMOs on Tonbridge Road and Upper Fant Road (Cllr Harper’s comment, 17 August).
The two counts use different areas: a 100-metre circle in one case, the length of the road in the other. The planning officer’s report, when it is published, should say which the council accepts.
What the councillor and the MP said
Cllr Harper asked on 14 August for the application to go to the planning committee rather than be decided by officers. He said the public needed to see that it was appropriate (call-in request, 14 August). The portal still lists the expected decision level as “Delegated Decision”.
His objections include:
- the scale, which he calls “unprecedented in an area of local housing”
- only two kitchens, by his reading of the plans, for 65 residents
- too little outdoor space for that many people to sit out or dry laundry
- the loss of the hotel’s bar and function rooms, which he says the council has long used as a polling station
- no visitor parking, and more traffic on what he calls the main road in and out of Fant
Helen Grant wrote to the council on 17 September after hearing from constituents. She said she shared “serious concerns” about a 42-bed HMO at this location. She named parking, GP services, community facilities, and what she called “the existing and disproportionate concentration of HMOs in Fant Ward and the wider ME16 area”. She asked for her opposition to be noted (Helen Grant MP’s letter, registered 18 September).
What the statutory consultees said
The official consultees have raised no formal objection so far:
- Kent Police’s designing-out-crime officer made a list of security recommendations on 13 August. These included door entry systems, CCTV in communal areas and controlled access between floors. After reading the applicant’s response, the officer said on 7 September the measures “meet my expectations” (Kent Police, 13 August; 7 September).
- Kent County Council Highways said on 1 September that the proposal does not meet its criteria for the highway authority to get involved (KCC Highways).
- Maidstone’s housing team had no comment, because the scheme includes no affordable housing (housing team).
None of this decides the application. Parking and highway safety can still be weighed by the council’s own planners.
When the comments came in
The council advertised the application in the Kent Messenger and Medway Messenger on 20 August. The advert’s comment period ran to 10 September. The file shows 331 neighbour comments published between 13 August and 26 September. The busiest week was 24 to 30 August, with 149 (documents tab, read 7 October).
What it means for you
If you live in Fant, Oakwood or off Tonbridge Road, you can still comment. The portal says the application “is open for comments” until it is decided. Use the “Make a Comment” tab on the application page and quote 26/502329/FULL. Comments become public on the file.
Comments carry most weight when they deal with planning grounds: the council’s HMO guidance and its 10% test, parking, outdoor space, and the effect on neighbours.
If the application goes to committee, the officer’s report is published with the agenda before the meeting. Our guide to Maidstone planning applications explains how delegated and committee decisions work.
We will report the decision when it is made.
Have your say