Future of unauthorised Wednesbury car dealership in doubt after owner loses appeal

West Midlands Cars in Franchise Street, Wednesbury, opened without planning permission in 2022 and has been the subject of several complaints due to the site being overcrowded with cars.

A planning application by owner Gul Nawaz to use the site for car storage and sales was rejected in June 2023 by Sandwell Council which said it was “inappropriate” and “to the detriment of residents.”

Mr Nawaz appealed to the government’s planning inspectors in a bid to get the ruling overturned but a review of the plans have seen officials back the council’s decision.

The council said it had received “several” complaints about cars parked on the street and Franchise Street has been visited by several council departments as well as West Midlands Police.

The council visited again in November 2023 to find the former pub’s car park full with untaxed and ‘off the road’ SORN cars and several parked on pavements and on the street.

“On-street parking at these levels causes congestion as two-way vehicle movements cannot be maintained and obscures visibility for drivers leaving Beebee Road and Cook Street,” the council added when rejecting the application two years ago.

“Many properties on Franchise Street are Victorian terraced properties so residents rely on on-street parking, this business has a severe impact on residential amenity.”

After the appeal was lodged by Nawaz earlier this year, the planning inspector made a visit to Franchise Street and found that several cars were partially parked on the pavement “impeding accessibility for pedestrians and pavement users” and “causing inconvenience and potential highway safety issues” if they were unable to pass and had to step into the road.

“In places it would not be possible to pass along the pavement in a wheelchair or with a buggy due to the presence of parked cars on the pavement,” the inspector said in a report which agreed with the council’s decision.

“The hardstanding to the front of the site provides space for several cars and at the time of my site visit this area was occupied with numerous closely parked cars.”

The inspector said evidence submitted to support Mr Nawaz’s appeal “did not sufficiently explain how the business operate[d], the capacity of the site, and how the number of cars on the site at any one time [was] controlled.”

“Limited evidence has been supplied in terms of the number of vehicular movements associated with the use or how staff and customer parking is provided,” the inspector said.

“Furthermore, the frequency and management of deliveries including the parking and turning arrangements for any vehicle transporters or similar vehicles has not been explained.

“As a result, it has not been demonstrated that the site has the capacity to provide sufficient parking and adequate space to accommodate turning requirements associated with the use.”

The inspector concluded that the car dealership resulted in “increased parking pressure and demand” and resulted in the “presence of inappropriately parked cars and delivery vehicles manoeuvring in the highway.”

“This affects the free flow of traffic, impedes visibility and results in inconvenience for pedestrians, increasing the risk of conflict between all users of the highway and resulting in a harmful effect on highway safety for all road users,” the inspector added.

“In addition to the frustration and inconvenience associated with increased parking pressure, the use gives rise to noise associated with the loading and unloading of cars from transporters along with general noise and disturbance from activities associated with the use such as visiting customers and moving cars in and around the site.”

The site had been used for the sale and storage of cars in 2017 but had ceased a year later following enforcement action by the council.

In a report outlining its most recent decision, Sandwell Council said: “The car sales use and associated comings and goings is inappropriate in the locality and has a detrimental impact on the amenity of an otherwise predominantly residential area.

“The retention of the car sales use would impact on the highway network due to visitors to the site and manoeuvring of vehicles.”

The council’s planners said the proposed work should “function well and add to the overall quality of the area” which the used car dealership did not.

Sandwell Council said it had visited the site and found too many cars stored on the site and in the street as well as on the neighbouring pub car park for the former Forge Tavern.

“The site layout was not representative of the layout plans submitted with the application,” the council said.

“There were far more vehicles stored on site. A small car transporter – for one vehicle – was parked on street in front of the site.

“It appeared that the site was not sufficient in size for the scale of the operation that was taking place there.

“The applicants stated that the vehicles parked on the pub car park were not theirs but were somehow able to confirm that they would be moved. Highways completed another site visit in November 2023, the situation had improved, presumably as the application was still to be determined.

“Since then, the business has begun operating as per the previous levels this has been noted when passing the site while completing other site visits around the borough.”

Nearly decade-old plans to turn the neighbouring former Forge Tavern into an eight-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO) were approved earlier this year.

The local authority’s planners have turned down several moves to bring the old pub back to life in the last eight years including two moves to open an Islamic tuition centre and two separate bids for a new community centre.

Sandwell Council rejected those plans in 2018 and again in 2021 over concerns that poor public transport links and its ‘out-of-town-centre’ location could cause “severe” parking problems in the surrounding residential streets.