Huge HMO rejected again after 800 object

A plan to convert a former police training centre into a 69-bed HMO has been thrown out again after receiving more than 800 objections.

Sandwell Council has rejected plans to convert the former West Midlands Police training centre Windmill House in Windmill Lane, Smethwick, into a huge 69-bed HMO after turning down a move for a 76-bed shared building earlier this year.

The latest application for the empty building, opposite St Matthew’s CE Primary School, received 823 objections and petitions totalling more than 1,100 signatures were also submitted against the controversial work.

Sandwell Council’s planners repeated many of the reasons it used for rejecting the HMO in February saying the tiny rooms would provide an unacceptable standard of living and would “significantly less” outdoor space and “constrained and inaccessible” shared indoor space.

The council’s planners added the HMO would be “intrusive” for neighbours and lead to a loss of privacy – with some rooms looking directly into private gardens.

“Furthermore, by reason of the scale and intensity of occupation proposed, the limited communal facilities and shared spaces would not provide a level of amenity commensurate with the number of residents,” the council’s planners said in a report outlining the refusal.

“In addition, a number of bedrooms would be positioned in close proximity to boundary treatments and the adjoining industrial building, resulting in a poor outlook, an increased sense of enclosure and substandard residential amenity.

“The proposed use of obscured glazing to certain room windows in order to mitigate overlooking would further restrict outlook and highlight the unsatisfactory relationship between the development and neighbouring properties.

“Collectively, these deficiencies would result in a poor-quality living environment and fail to provide a high standard of amenity for future occupiers.”

The three-storey building, which dates back to the 1970s, had been used by the region’s police force as a training centre and accommodation until it closed last year.

The empty, would have been converted into a house of multiple occupation (HMO) under plans by Kamraan Ahmed of Meizon.

The council called the original 76-bed plan “oppressive” and “substandard” with ground floor rooms greeted with “unacceptable” views of warehouses, boundary treatments and cycle storage.

Windmill House was sold to MNP Investment Holdings in June last year as one of several West Midlands Police properties deemed ‘surplus to requirements.’

By Christian Barnett | Local Democracy Reporting Service