Express & Star

Councillor hits out at controversial bedsit plans in Smethwick

A Bearwood councillor has hit out at planning inspectors for giving the go-ahead for controversial scheme for 50 bedsits on a busy Smethwick road.

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Bearwood Road

Councillor Bob Piper has criticised a decision to allow the conversion of flats above shops on Bearwood Road into multi-occupancy homes accommodating up to four people each.

The successful appeals have left the council with an undisclosed legal bill after costs were awarded to the developers.

Last year, Sandwell Council’s planning committee rejected 11 separate applications to convert the first and second floors of each building.

Agents for the company had said the overall redevelopment would revitalise the area’s shopping and provide accommodation for young professionals working in Birmingham city centre.

Green Room Properties Ltd appealed the refusal to a government appointed independent inspector who has now overturned the council’s decision.

Councillor Piper, who opposed the original applications at the, attacked the inspectorate’s findings: “The planning inspector in Bristol has decided to ignore the wishes of local people in favour of a London-based property developer.

“What they are doing is detrimental to the area, they are cramming far too many properties into far too small a space.

“There are no parking arrangements and I think it will be too disruptive for local residents.”

He added that since the inspector’s decision, the developers have submitted a new application to allow even more bedsits to be built on the site.

The scheme was originally thrown out after objections from residents whose homes would be overlooked and after police said the developments could impact on crime and disorder because of lack of parking.

But allowing the appeal, inspectors said that while there was no guarantee future occupiers of the bedsits would not be car owners, the site was very close to a bus station and there was unrestricted on-street parking available in nearby streets.

The appeal has left Sandwell Council with a hefty, undisclosed, bill after costs for were awarded to the developers for each successful appeal.

But this week the chairman of the planning committee, Councillor Paul Sanders, defended the original decisions saying councillors had rejected the applications on general planning grounds, adding: “The applicants [Green Room Properties[, as is their right under planning law, went to appeal to the planning inspectorate – who I don’t believe came to see the applications’ [location] – and allowed them all.

“So if anyone asks why we declined so many applications? It is because on planning grounds the people of Bearwood and Abbey ward asked us to decline them and we listen to the people.”

The developers have been contacted for comment.