‘Much-needed’ homes for long-demolished offices approved after earlier criticism

The application for 14 two and three-bed houses to be built in Clifton Lane, Stone Cross, West Bromwich, was backed by Sandwell Council’s planning committee on June 26.

The homes will be built on vacant land which was home to Sandwell Council offices before being demolished in the early 2010s.

The plans were redrawn to include seven two-bed and seven three-bed houses after objections from the council’s highways department over a lack of parking spaces. A total of 11 objections were raised by neighbors – particularly over concerns that sufficient spaces would be provided.

Council planners recommended the application be approved by councillors, saying the move would provide a “unique” development with “much-needed” housing, after highways officers previously criticized the move for not providing enough parking.

They said the original plans, which would provide 11 fewer spaces than required, could not be sustained and that the application relied too much on the use of on-street parking spaces in the surrounding streets.

Highways officers said using existing streets for parking was “not acceptable” and “developments should not rely on on-street parking to accommodate parking generated by the development”.

The Highways Department said previous plans for the Clifton Lane site approved by the council met parking standards. The council accepted that visitor spaces should be provided in the surrounding streets and would be willing to allow this again, but said most of the spaces must be built alongside new homes.

The council said Clifton Lane was not a sustainable location, but Hub Transport Planning, which carried out a parking study on behalf of the developer, said more than 50 spaces were available within 200 meters of the proposed homes.

Consultants said eight more cars in Clifton Lane and Bustleholme Lane would not have as big an impact as the council claimed.

Council offices and a doctor’s surgery which remains open today, were built on Clifton Lane in the late 1980s.

The land was then bought in the 2010s, with the remaining buildings demolished in late 2013, and the council granted planning permission to build 13 houses on the vacant land in 2019. Part of the new road on the Clifton Lane site was built in 2022. but not much other work took place.

The new application boasted an “improved” proposal to the housing plan approved by the council four-and-a-half years ago.

The Alpha and Bowerbird Homes application said the new homes meet many “passivhaus” principles – which are homes designed and built to use as little energy as possible to heat and cool the building.

This includes additional insulation, airtight materials, triple-glazed windows, mechanical ventilation, solar panels and heat pumps. Green houses are mostly built in factories and then delivered to the site and lowered into place.