Planning permission for another town centre house in multiple occupation has been refused by a council. The decision to reject the application from Scott Nickless to convert a family home at 27 Charles Street in Fant, Maidstone into an eight-bedroom HMO went against the advice of officers, but councillors were adamant. Cllr Maureen Cleator (Lab) likened the living conditions it could create to those overseen by Peter Rachman, a notorious slum landlord in London in the ‘50s and ‘60s. She said: “This is the human equivalent of battery hen farming, to put so many people into a single home. “Yes, …