Plan to convert former Smethwick police training centre into flats is redrawn
The application has now been re-submitted but now asks for permission to convert the building into 69 one-bed flats.
A plan to convert a former police training centre into flats has been redrawn.
The application has now been re-submitted but now asks for permission to convert the building into 69 one-bed flats.
Sandwell Council rejected plans to convert the former West Midlands Police training centre Windmill House in Windmill Lane, Smethwick, into a huge 76-bed HMO earlier this year.
A statement included with the application said: “Following extensive review, the proposals have been comprehensively revised.
“The number of co-living rooms has been reduced from 76 to 69, allowing a substantial increase in on-site parking from 23 to 35 spaces.
“Internal layouts have been refined to improve the quality of accommodation and communal facilities, whilst external amenity has been enhanced through a redesigned first-floor roof terrace directly connected to the residents’ lounge, improved landscaped gardens and the relocation of refuse and cycle storage.”
The three-storey building, which dates back to the 1970s, had been used by the region’s police force as a training centre and accommodation until it closed last year.
The empty site would have been converted into a house of multiple occupation (HMO) under plans by Kamraan Ahmed of Meizon.
Ruling on the previous application, the council said ground floor rooms would be greeted with “unacceptable” views of warehouses, boundary treatments and cycle storage” and called the plans “oppressive” and “substandard.”
Planners also said the conversion would be unacceptable for neighbours leading to “direct and intrusive overlooking” and a loss of privacy and called the building’s communal facilities “inadequate.”
“The proposal lacks sufficient usable and accessible external amenity space, demonstrates poor pedestrian connectivity from the car park to the rear of the site, and provides inadequate accessibility to cycle storage,” the council said in its rejection.
“The first-floor communal terrace is poorly accessed and fails to provide appropriate defensible space and privacy for adjacent residential units.
“Furthermore, the siting and scale of the refuse storage to the front of the site, without additional provision to serve the rear wing, would result in unsatisfactory and impractical waste management arrangements for future occupiers.”
The site’s 47 car park spaces would have been reduced to 23 spaces as part of the work which the council’s planners said was a “significant shortfall” than the 38 spaces required.
Windmill House was sold to MNP Investment Holdings in June last year as one of several West Midlands Police properties deemed ‘surplus to requirements.’
The planning application said the proposed HMO at Windmill House had been designed to support healthcare workers at the nearby Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which opened in 2024.
The surrounding area is being primed for regeneration with plans including hundreds of new homes and a new school.
You can find out more about planning applications and planned roadworks where you live by visiting publicnoticeportal.uk/express-and-star
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