Approved block for curry house parking

A new block of flats will be built on a curry car park after plans were given the go-ahead by the council. The nine flats will be built on a patch of land on the corner of Neptune Street and Sedgley Road West in Tipton after Gurdeep Sahota’s application was approved by planners at Sandwell Council.

The council approved a plan to build six apartments on the land in 2022. The plans were redrawn to include 11 parking spaces – two more than originally included – at the council’s request.

The land was last used as a car park for diners at the adjoining Mughal Massala restaurant. The council’s approval for six one-bed flats came after it criticized an earlier plan for six two-bed flats. The council continued to reject the two-bed flats, saying the building was too large and would be “squeezed” onto the site.

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The council also said the block of flats would be “out of maintenance” for the area and would result in a loss of light and privacy for its neighbours. Rejecting the first plan in 2021, council planners said: “The proposal is over-development, out of scale in terms of scale and the proposal contravenes council-adopted setback distances of 15.5 metres, resulting in a potential loss of light, of perspective and privacy. for the existing properties on Neptune Street.”

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However, when new plans were submitted which reduced the sizes of the flats a year later, the council approved the application and welcomed the downsizing. The concrete car park has long been touted as a site for a large family home, with plans approved by Sandwell Council back in 2008.

Planning permission was renewed in 2011 – just before it expired – and new designs and minor changes were approved in 2012, but the work was never carried out.