Sandwell set to rule on 200 homes and school
A pair of proposals for around 100 homes each are recommended for approval, along with the redevelopment of Perryfields Academy.
Sandwell Council’s planning committee meets on 10 June. The meeting has a bumper docket, with three particularly eyecatching items:
Liberty housing, Cradley Heath
A 100% affordable homes pitch for 82 houses and an apartment block including 10 maisonettes and five duplex apartments at the former F&L Smout & Sons industrial site off Woods Lane, Cradley Heath are first up.
Liberty Development is the applicant, working with architect BM3 and planner Tetlow King on a proposal that will look to pay tribute to the area’s chain-making heritage.
Approval is recommended for the plans, which would see delivery across a site of close to seven acres west of Woods Lane. The site is allocated for housing.
There are business units on the site, around half of which are believed to still be in use. The Victorian Society objects to the demolition of the two locally-listed buildings at the site.
The River Stour runs along one side of the site, with the developer planning to retain and enhance a green corridor along the riverside.
Sandwell’s current inability to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land means approval is recommended.
Planning portal reference: DC/25/70460
Perryfields Academy, Oldbury
Approval is recommended for the demolition of six school buildings, and their replacement by a three-storey building with linked sports block, the application also covering access, parking, sports facilities, landscaping and associated works.
The total new space proposed is 87,513 sq ft, a smaller footprint than the space being lost, highlighting that the school is modernising, rather than expanding. Parking spaces would go from 71 to 98.
ADP is the designer. Credit: planning documents
The site in question is off Oldacre Road. Now an academy, it is owned and managed by Broadleaf Partnership Trust.
Working on the project for the Department for Education is a team including BAM, Define Planning & Design, Mott MacDonald, and ADP.
Planning portal reference: DC/25/71275
Housing at GKN site, Smethwick
Approval is also recommended for 101 homes and a 1,900 sq ft commercial unit at the site of former GKN industrial buildings off Cranford Street, Smethwick.
Sandwell Council is the applicant, but not the landowner – a compulsory purchase order process is ongoing.
The site is allocated for housing and comprises a collection of industrial buildings and areas of vacant land.
The surrounding context is characterised by a mix of uses, including the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, established industrial operations, and residential neighbourhoods – the Cape Arm of the Birmingham Canal forms a physical boundary between the site and the hospital as well as being a wildlife corridor.
The proposal, which falls within the wider Grove Lane masterplan, is for 26 houses, and 75 flats across five blocks.
Six two-bed houses are mapped out, along with 10 three-beds, and 10 four-beds. The apartments will all be either one- or two-bed flats in blocks of three to five storeys.
Planning portal reference: DC/26/71442
