Houses in Multiple Occupation around Magee will be treated as one household and allowed one permit under any prospective residents’ parking schemes.

Laura Irvine, head of parking policy in the Department for Infrastructure, said: “The current process for an HMO is that, if it is one rateable household, it will have one vote.”

Ms. Irvine was asked about HMOs by Foyle MLA Mark Durkan.

“Derry City and Strabane District Council, in its local development plan, has determined that a HMO with over four bedrooms will not be allowed.

"DfI has assumed that a four-bedroom will have 2.4 cars. How will HMOs figure in the consideration and progression of the schemes? Will they just be counted as ordinary homes that have 2.4 cars, when they could have more because there could be four adults living there, as there could be in any house, who each have a vehicle?” he asked.

Ms. Irvine replied: “Regardless of how many individuals live in the residence, the household will have one vote in the ballot. We do not necessarily work on the basis of how many vehicles are linked to a household when we consider the creation of a workable scheme.

"Whilst we request that information, we look more at how many parking spaces we can facilitate in the area to address each resident with 1.2 spaces.

"We work on the basis that there will be one permit for everyone who does not have off-street parking available to them. Depending on the scale and size of the area, we will allocate additional permits, but it is one permit per household for those who do not have off-street parking.”