Plan seeks to demolish eyesore Stourbridge building to make way for 31 new flats

Plans have been submitted to Dudley Council planners to demolish the run-down former Archway Veterinary Centre building at the end of Market Street along with shop buildings next to it - that are situated on the corner of Drury Lane.

Picton Jones Asset Management Limited is seeking outline planning permission to demolish numbers 36 to 42 Market Street and build 31 new flats on the site.

A design and access statement prepared by Abbiss Design in Stourbridge as part of the planning application (P25/1454) , states: “The site consists of four existing buildings in various states of disrepair. Number 36 is part of a pair of three-storey semi detached properties and is currently in use as a small café. 

“Its attached neighbour (number 38) is suffering structural damage and has been unoccupied for a number of years. Numbers 40 and 42 are both two-storey, in various stages of disrepair including structural defects. Number 42 has no roof covering and both 40 and 42 have been secured to prevent access for a number of years.” 

It adds that discussions have been ongoing with Dudley Council’s planning department since May 2018 over various design options proposed for the site which sits within the town's conservation area.

And it states: “A meeting with Historic England on August 21 2019 focussed design on retaining a similar scale and mass to development fronting Market Street and take inspiration from the palette of Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the immediate area.

“This should not be a pastiche of the existing buildings but a studied detail of the form, mass and use of detail that these existing buildings provide.”

The proposed development would include 26 parking spaces each with its own electric charging point. Each parking space would be allocated to individual flats. Vertical cycle storage would be provided within each hallway to individual flat blocks

Many of the flats would have individual balcony areas or small patios at ground floor, the design and access statement says, and a communal pallet bin store would be provided near the site access as an easy collection point.

It adds that the development would be “a new build design that complements the urban principles of the conservation area”.

Former Stourbridge MP Suzanne Webb welcomed the plans - saying: “When I was the MP, we worked hard behind the scenes to try to get this building re-purposed, but it was like pushing water up a hill because of the cost of construction versus any margins the developer made. I never gave up, and now it is moving forward.”

She said she was “very pleased” to see the planning application submitted - adding that she hopes the redevelopment will be “sympathetic to Market Street” and that it retains the historic element of it.

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