Care home plans for former baths revived decade on

A plan has been revived to build a care home on the site of a town’s former swimming baths.

Select Healthcare has resubmitted plans to build a 19-bed care home on land the former Tipton Baths site on the corner of Queen Street and Manor Road – a decade after receiving the green light from Sandwell Council.

The new care home would bring around 20 jobs according to the application

Select Healthcare received planning permission from Sandwell Council to build a £3m 29-bed care home on the site in 2016 with the firm saying the new facility would be built within 18 months and bring 45 jobs. However, the site has remained empty since the demolition of the baths in 2014.

A statement included with the new application said: “The erection of one care facility in replacement of one swimming baths is an appropriate amount of development for this site. It will provide the people of Tipton Green with a place-based service which improves local health and wellbeing needs by working alongside the local authority, the voluntary sector, the community, and with NHS partners.

“The layout seeks to make optimum use of the available land while being respectful to road frontages, trees on the borders and the amenity of neighbouring residential properties.

“Compared to the scale of the former building, the new build will be aesthetically suited to its surroundings, professional in appearance and well-coordinated.”

The baths, which were built in the early 1930s, closed in 2011 and put up for sale soon after. It was eventually demolished in 2014.

Sandwell Council had closed the pool in 2002 due to rising costs but it re-opened two years later following a campaign by locals.

The campaign to save the baths saw a petition with more than 10,000 signatures delivered to Downing Street.

By Christian Barnett | Local Democracy Reporting Service