Plans submitted to change Kinver's Dunsley Hall from a hotel to a special educational needs school

The hall has been passed through a line of wealthy families and aristocrats since 1304 but now a planning application for change of use from hotel to school has been submitted to South Staffordshire Council.

Bromsgrove based Polaris Community's planning application outlines its plan to transform the Dunsley Road hall into a new school

Bruce O’Brien, Senior Planning Consultant with Aitchison Raffety, the project's architects, said: "The application seeks consent for the use of the land and buildings on the wider site as a non-residential Special Educational Needs School. 

"The application is for the change of use of the school and land, internal alterations to the Listed and Curtilage Listed Buildings, erection of fencing, and the installation of a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) within the curtilage."

He added: " The applicant is Polaris Community; they are one of the UK’s largest leading communities of children’s service providers. 

"The Polaris Community is one that specialises in nurturing childcare. Alongside specialist education provision, the business provides independent fostering and adoption agencies, residential children's homes, leaving care services, and bespoke children’s services contract. 

"Some of the services have been established for 37 years, helping young lives thrive across the UK. 6.7 The drive behind the change of use of Dunsley Hall to an education facility is to help children and young people reach their full potential through specialist education and support for children who need a tailored approach to learning."

Polaris invited local ward and parish councillors to discuss the application. They said: "All councillors were provided with the details of the proposal and the Parish Councillors were invited to discuss the matter further at a virtual meeting. 

The objective of the consultation was to provide stakeholders with information regarding the development proposals and to help facilitate an opportunity to comment. 

"As yet, neither Ward nor Parish Councillors have responded to the information sent to them and the meeting that was offered to the Parish Councillors has been neither accepted nor rejected." 

South Staffordshire Council's planning department's consultation will be open for comments and objections until March 7.

In 2005, Dunsley Hall became a hotel after it was bought by a Kinver family. Several applications were submitted to extend the hotel and create a spa but were dropped in 2010.  The hotel continued with 11 rooms and a restaurant. 

In January 2023 the hall went on the market for £1.6 million.