Vital repairs at Lightwoods House

Emergency repair work has been carried out at a once-grand house that has been allowed to fall into disrepair and become a magnet for vandals.

Lightwoods House in Lightwoods Park, Bearwood, now faces a £1.2million repair bill.

The park borders Birmingham along Hagley Road and is within Sandwell, but has been in Birmingham City Council control since the 1970s.

Since then it has been allowed to deteriorate with a leaking roof which has caused ceilings to collapse and dry rot to form.

Emergency repair work has now been carried out on the building's roof to prevent further damage, before it's handed back to Sandwell Council in September following years of legal wrangling.

Sandwell's deputy leader and Bearwood councillor, Steve Eling, who visited the property last month said: "There has been a proper structural survey as part of the process for the transfer of the park and the house and it is pretty grim.

"I had a copy of the structural survey saying that the roof has been leaking, there is dry rot and the electrics are dangerous.

"As a result of that Birmingham City Council have agreed to engage a contractor to do some emergency works on the roof to prevent further water leakage and that work has been under way.

"It is not a permanent solution, this is just to patch it up. It was clear visiting the house that quite a considerable amount of water damage has been done inside. There are ceilings that have collapsed and that sort of thing.

"It is pretty poor and it is a crying shame that it has been allowed to get into that condition, but we are in the process of negotiating the transfer which now looks like it will happen in September."