Wednesbury's £1million hilltop house will become children’s home as plans approved

The four-bed Round House in Reservoir Passage in Wednesbury – which comes with a tennis court, swimming pool and its own windmill – will be converted into a residential home for up to four children.

Sandwell Council’s planning committee voted in November last year to defer a decision to allow councillors to visit the site after concerns were raised over the accessibility of the hilltop home.

Following the visit, the councillors quickly voted in favour of the conversion at a meeting on Wednesday (January 7).

Earlier plans to convert the hilltop home into a school for 30 children with social, emotional, and mental health issues and learning difficulties was scrapped earlier this year after Sandwell Council said surrounding roads were unsuitable to cope with demand and not enough parking spaces had been provided.

At the meeting in November, Cllr Luke Giles, who represents Wednesbury North, objected to the plans saying the narrow roads around the home were already posing congestion problems – particularly around drop-off times at the nearby Wonder Years nursery.

Cllr Giles, who asked the committee to delay ruling on the application, added that bins were often left uncollected as refuse workers struggled to drive along the tight road during busy times.

The local authority’s planning officers had recommended the move was approved.

No objections were made by the council’s highways department.

Work on the striking home, a stone’s throw from Wednesbury town centre, 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.