Wednesbury hairdresser wins battle with council to keep home salon open
A hairdresser with over 22 years of experience has won a planning application to keep her business open, despite the council wishing to close it down over policy reasons.
Donna Mitchell, the owner of Noggin Hair Salon, in Wednesbury, has battled with her local council to keep her business open for her elderly and disabled customers.
But policy officers at Sandwell Council insisted the hair salon should be refused planning permission based on a 'towns centre' policy, arguing the hair salon would be “best suited” in Wednesbury town centre itself.
Councillor Elaine Costigan, reported the Noggin Hair Salon’s application to the planning committee on Tuesday.
In the application, she argued the salon benefits the community, creates income for the council as customers park on the pay and display car park at Spring Head, and no highway issues have been found.
Meanwhile John Baker, service manager for planning at Sandwell Council, read out an email of support from a disabled individual who uses Noggin Hair Salon, quoting they are “quite enamoured” with the location and convenience of the salon.
It comes as the salon was first used as a private garage after Sandwell Council approved a planning application to build a double-doored garage in May 2007.
The owners of the property, Paul Talbot and Donna Mitchell, renovated the garage into a workable salon in March last year, before submitting a retrospective planning application in April.
At the time, Sandwell Council had refused the application, citing their own town centre policy, arguing the hair salon was too far from the “retail core” in Wednesbury town centre – at 356 metres – and therefore not within walking distance of the centre.
The local authority also said the hair salon had failed to demonstrate their services could not be provided within, or on the edge of, Wednesbury town centre, claiming: “The latest centre surveys for Wednesbury town centre indicate that there are a significant number of vacant units that are suitable for this type of retail use.”
But the council’s own report admitted “no planning records could be established” for two fully operational hair salons outside Wednesbury town centre on Brunswick Park Road, parallel to Hydes Road.
Ian Jones, an ex-Labour councillor who spoke on behalf of Ms Mitchell, said it created a “precedence” for other hair salons.
“There are two hairdressers in the road already. You wouldn’t have seen them, because they’re the other way up [Brunswick Park Road].
“One in a converted garage in the next road, which is identical to the converted garage in this application, which was approved not too long ago and without any restrictions, which I say would create a precedence.”
He argued the salon owners had already looked into moving into Wednesbury, but they said it would be too costly to renovate a vacant site.
“The salon has been open for eleven months, and there have been no objections or complaints of this application in all that time.
“The only objection is from the town centre policy point of view, which basically means that the salon should be in the town centre, which already has 26 shops doing similar type of hairdressing, nails and other cosmetics.
“We’ve done a sequential test which confirms that there are no suitable shops available for Donna to move into or to convert.
“The actual cost of converting. would be tens of thousands of pounds. The only empty shops are either too small or too large, or are over two floors, which means Donna’s elderly and disabled customers cannot access the salon.
“The significant costs associated with the vacant shops. being refurbished means that the business would be unviable.”
In a humiliating climbdown for officers at Sandwell Council, councillors at the meeting supported the local business.
Councillor Scott Chapman, said: “I think that in Sandwell we should be supporting our strong local businesses that employ local people. That money is then going back into our local economy which is exactly what we need.
“I’m concerned about the two year temporary grant. Does that mean we have to come back in front of here again? We’re going to go through all of this all over again?
“There is a chemist already built over the road, and I know planning permission would have been granted a long time ago, and things have changed a little bit, since then, but it’s not out of shape for the area.”
Councillor Charn Singh Padda said: "Doesn’t [Sandwell Council] say, ‘work from home if you can?’. Let’s do what we say. Let’s allow this young lady to work from home.”
Planning permission for a two-year temporary application to trade, under current opening hours, was approved at the meeting.
Donna Mitchell has been approached for comment.
