Plans lodged to open nursery at former Walsall church
An empty Walsall church looks set to be turned into a new nursery to meet growing demand for childcare places in the area.
Blossoms Holdings Ltd is hoping to open its fourth facility in the West Midlands and Staffordshire with an 85-place nursery on the former Daw End Methodist Church site in Daw End Lane, Rushall.
If approved, it would act as a sister-nursery to the company’s existing Pelsall branch, Blossoms On The Common, which opened in 2019.
The first Blossoms nursery was unveiled in Great Barr in 2016 while a Cannock facility was opened up in 2020. Overall, Blossoms caters for hundreds of families across the three sites and have created 85 new jobs.
Lee Bywater of Blossoms said they work with both Birmingham City and Walsall councils, as well as the local communities they are based in, to create ‘home from home nurseries’ to help nurture children.
An Ofsted report published in August last year saw Blossoms On The Common rated as ‘outstanding’ by inspectors. Both Cannock and Great Barr facilities have also been praised by watchdogs and given overall ‘good’ ratings.
In the application, Mr Bywater said: “We would love to open Blossoms Rushall as a sister site to our Pelsall setting.
“Not only could we offer fantastic childcare we could offer a whole community an exciting project for their area and for future generations.
“Rushall is a lovely little village and my family have had businesses and lived near there for a number of years.
“Sadly a number of our friends have had to move out of the area due to a lack of acceptable childcare.
“Nurseries in the surrounding area are all full including our site in Pelsall and the birth rate is rising.
“There is a shortage of quality and affordable spaces in this area and we genuinely believe that this property represents a fantastic opportunity and location to enable us to replicate the model we have created at our other settings and offer the same opportunities to children from Rushall and its immediate local area.”
Mr Bywater added that the nursery plans to keep the property in its current condition with "minimal changes" to the internal layout and no structural changes.
He said: "We will keep the car parking layout as it is and are only looking to change the use of the building from its current use as a church to a children’s day nursery operating Monday to Friday, 7am to 6.30pm, 51 weeks of the year.”
Walsall Council planning officers are expected to make a decision on the plan in March.
