Sandwell community centre to be demolished to make way for new homes

A council has applied to demolish an empty community centre to make way for new homes.

Sandwell Council has submitted a planning application to knock down the former Cradley Heath Community Centre in Reddal Hill Road, Cradley Heath, as well as nearby lock-up garages to prepare the land for around 13 new homes.

The community centre closed last August after councillors deemed it “surplus to requirements.”

The community centre was used by the Citizens Advice Bureau and drugs and alcohol support groups as well as Yemeni Community Association for English classes.

The centre also hosted exercise, dance and art classes, a youth club, boxing, martial arts and karate groups, a children’s soft play, and yoga and Tai Chi classes.

But despite being well-used, the community centre was still ordered to close under a decision by the then Labour-run authority.

The council said the building was ‘surplus to requirements’ and its running costs had become a “significant expenditure” with councillors deciding it should be demolished to make way for new housing in the future.

The community centre, a former primary school that was converted in the early 1980s, was run by Sandwell Community Hubs until 2022 when it was handed back to the council.

The centre cost around £54,000 a year to run, according to Sandwell Council, with repairs amounting to at least £11,000 a year.

The council added it would need to spend at least £350,000 in the next five years to repair the building and at least a further £150,000 in the next two decades.

The building’s budget would be “exhausted within the next six months,” councillors were warned.

Earlier this year, Sandwell Council bid for £1.3m government funding towards demolishing the community centre.

The government funding, announced in 2024 and administered by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), can be used to clear “neglected land” – such as empty buildings, former car parks and industrial sites – to make way for new homes.

The site of the former community centre had been deemed “the most suitable candidate” for the funding by Sandwell Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority.