New plans to covnert £1m landmark Wednesbury home after school move scrapped
A new move would see a £1m landmark house converted into a children’s home after plans for a special school were scrapped over parking and traffic concerns.
The four-bed Round House in Reservoir Passage, a stone’s throw from Wednesbury town centre, which comes with a tennis court, swimming pool and its own windmill, would have been converted into a school for 30 children with social, emotional, and mental health issues and learning difficulties.
But those plans were scrapped after Sandwell Council said surrounding roads were unsuitable to cope with demand and not enough parking spaces had been provided.
A new planning application to the Black Country local authority has asked for permission to convert the hilltop home into a residential home for up to four children.
The striking home, which took more than 25 years to build using salvaged materials, was sold to Birmingham-based Spring Hill High School but its plans to convert the building into a school were met with scepticism by Sandwell Council over how parents and carers would access and park at the school and whether it would cause traffic problems for the area.
The new application by Gracebridge Care Ltd comes from director Lee Baillie who is also a director of Spring Hill High School.
The planning application for the special school was submitted in December last year but was withdrawn in June.
Sandwell Council’s highways department said it was concerned over the lack of information in the plans – noting a large difference between a four-bed family home and a school serving 30 pupils and 20 staff with the ‘extremely narrow’ Reservoir Passage also unsuitable for two-way traffic.
The council was also unclear over whether pupils would arrive by foot, car, minibus or taxi – all of which would cause different levels of traffic especially at drop-off and pick-up times on school days and also affect neighbours.
Work on the striking home began in the 1980s, and it was constructed using salvaged and recycled materials from old houses, schools, factories and churches across the West Midlands including bricks, steel joints, iron pillars and heavy stone lifted in by crane.
The site was sold last year by owner Matthew Humphries following the death of his parents David and Elizabeth who were part of four generations to run the family demolition business beginning in 1919.
