Rejected move to turn eyesore former pub into community centre could still go ahead

An attempt to convert the former Forge Tavern pub in Wednesbury into a community centre was turned down by Sandwell Council earlier this year over concerns about the lack of parking provided.

But now the charity behind the plan New Hope Global has turned to the government’s planning inspectors, who have the power to overrule the council, in a bid to get the decision overturned.

The latest application for the boarded up pub on the corner of Franchise Street and Beebee Road had claimed the 15 car parking spaces proposed and surrounding streets were “more than adequate to meet need” for the listed maximum capacity of 140 people.

But the council disagreed and criticised the application for not providing any information on the number of cars the new community centre would draw or whether there even any demand for a new community centre.

The proposals for the Forge included a number of multi-purpose rooms, a conference room, dining room and library as well as first-floor flats.

The efforts to breathe new life into the boarded-up pub, which closed in 2016, have included two separate applications to convert the building into an Islamic tuition centre.

Sandwell Council rejected those plans in 2018 and again in 2021 over concerns that poor public transport links and its ‘out-of-town-centre’ location could cause “severe” parking problems in the surrounding residential streets.

More plans to convert the pub into a community centre then came forward but were rejected in 2022 and in May this year.

An earlier plan to convert the former watering hole into a house of multiple occupation (HMO) was approved by the council in 2017 – but the work was never carried out.

Birmingham-based charity New Hope Global supports disadvantaged ethnic minorities from Bangladeshi and other black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK.

A decision by the planning inspector is not expected to be made until next year.