Councillors to decide on new HMO on busy Tipton route after neighbours object

An empty shop on Bloomfield Road in Tipton would be extended and converted into new retail units and a nine-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO) according to plans by Sandeep Kaur Jawanda.

However, a decision will be made by Sandwell Council’s planning committee after several objections were raised over the plans.

Neighbours said seven parking spaces would not be enough for a nine-bed HMO and three new shops.

Objections were also raised over the HMO being “out of character” for the area which would also result in a loss of light and privacy and create noise and anti-social behaviour problems.

The original application asked for permission to build a two-storey extension and convert the building into a 12-bed HMO but the plans were later reduced to nine rooms.

The council’s planners said the original move would have caused problems for neighbours but the now proposed single-storey would not cause any issues.

Highways colleagues at Sandwell Council raised no objections over the number of proposed parking spaces.

Sandwell Council’s planning committee meets in Oldbury on October 23 to make a decision.

A plan for a 10-bed HMO and new shops in Bloomfield Road was put forward last year but was then replaced with the 12-bed plan, which was then reduced to a nine-bed HMO after talks with the council.

The application for the former vape shop included three new retail units, new shop fronts, a single-storey extension, a two-storey rear extension, which has now been scrapped, and a loft conversion to make for the 12 new HMO rooms across three floors.

The application had included no parking spaces.

The new flats would be accessed via Hipkins Street off Bloomfield Road.

Before becoming a vape shop, the Bloomfield Road building was home to the Moto X motorcycle shop.

A cannabis factory, thought to be worth around £500,000, was discovered by West Midlands Police at the shop following a raid in 2013.

It was believed to have been among the biggest discovery of drugs by police in the region that year.

A planning application to build nine new flats on a patch of grass next to the former vape shop was approved by Sandwell Council in 2021 but never carried out.

This came just months after the council also approved plans to build 27 homes on the former Roman Mosaic tile factory site.

The landmark Tipton site, with its well-known ‘Roman’ inscribed chimney, had become a target for vandals, arsonists and fly-tippers before the council approved plans to demolish the majority of the former factory site in 2018.

Just last month, Sandwell Council approved a plan by Kevin Parkes from Coseley Properties to build four three-bed houses on the ‘eyesore’ land next to the proposed HMO.

The overgrown land has been empty for years and was last used as stables, according to Sandwell Council’s planning records.

The land was converted for keeping horses in 2004 and ‘temporary’ planning permission was granted in 2005 and again in 2007.