SEVEN students are to be evicted after councillors refused to give planning permission to allow a house to continue being used as bedsits.

Castle Point Council’s development control committee unanimously voted the house, in Riverview Road, Benfleet, should not carry on being used in this way.

The students, aged between 18 and 20, are all studying at Masters Performing Arts College, near Rayleigh Weir, and have been living in the property since August 2009.

An application to give official sanction to its use for bedsits was refused because there was practically nowhere on the residential street for the students to park their cars.

Joanna Sayer, who owns the house, had argued residents could fit four cars into a garage and drive on the site, but planners’ opinion was it would be a squeeze to accommodate two cars.

Neighbours in the road also objected, citing parking problems in the area. Speaking at the meeting, Richard Cerson, 50, of Riverview Road, said: “There simply is not enough room for parking at the house or in the street.

“The owner claims she has made space for seven bikes in the garden and says most of the students use public transport to get to college.

“We see this as a red herring, as there is no easy way of using buses and trains to get to Masters College.”

Norman Smith, Tory councillor for Boyce ward, said: “I do feel for the students, but residents are already having to put up with an unacceptable amount of parking on the street.

“Also if we turn this house into a bedsit for students, more bedsits will pop up and Benfleet will turn into another Leigh bedsit city.”