Housing scheme advances at the former Black Country pub have turned into a hot spot

A plan to finally turn a fly-tipping hot spot on the site of a ramshackle former Cradley Heath pub looks set to go ahead. Up to nine new homes are to be built on the site of the former Goldmine pub in Cradley Heath.

The site in Peartree Lane has been empty for nearly two decades after the 100-year-old pub closed in 2007 and several plans, including flats and a care home, have been put forward in recent years without getting off the ground.

The full application for nine new homes, which echoed similar plans from 2012, was put forward for a second time and backed by the council last year. A subsequent application by BMG Homes outlining the developer’s plans for electrical charging points, drainage, materials and a building schedule has now been approved by planners at Sandwell Council – allowing work to begin.

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The council said that seven years ago the site was in a “very poor condition” and that the ongoing problems – mainly fence damage and fly tipping – were “completely unacceptable” and had a “substantial negative impact” on neighbours. . The land was originally earmarked as a potential site for a new care home – Sandwell Council first approved a 39-bed facility in 2008, before a wider plan for a 45-bed care home was then supported by council planners not long after.

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Neither plan came to fruition and another application for nine homes was approved in 2021. This work also never came to fruition and then a move to build 31 homes in a three and four storey block as well as a car park underground, was then approved in 2017.

A statement included in the 2017 application boasted that the former pub site was empty, an eyesore and “received for redevelopment. The place has been fenced off for several years and is currently vacant. It is now very unsightly, suffers from fly tipping and therefore becomes a dreaded dumping ground.

“As such, residential development of the site will remove a source of noise and nuisance to its neighbors which should be actively welcomed by local residents.”