Flats plan for ex-sorting office approved
The future of a disused former Royal Mail building in Brownhills looks to be finally sorted as a proposal to convert it into flats was approved.
A new two storey block of eight apartments, with 10 parking spaces, will be built on land behind businesses on High Street and Church Street after permission was granted.
Walsall Council’s planning committee gave the thumbs up for the old sorting office to be demolished to make way for the development at a meeting on Thursday.
It has been closed for a number of years and a bid to demolish it and build a new bar in its place was even granted planning permission in 2011 but that never came to fruition.
Applicants Leisure Automatics Properties were originally given approval for a six apartment and two bedsit block to be built on the site in 2017.
But that plan hit the buffers when it emerged the proposed building was too close to a sewer, prompting a rethink and changes to the plans.
The new proposal did result in objections from some residents living on the adjacent Great Charles Street who raised fears about increased traffic and an invasion of privacy.
But officers declared the scheme acceptable and the committee passed the plans through, subject to planning conditions being met, without debate.
In the application, agent Robert Massey said: “Leisure Automatic Properties were very pleased to receive the original planning approval of six one bedroom flats and two bedsits for the site and were very disappointed not to have started.
“However, the awkward situation that has arisen is better faced now than to allow a potentially serious access problem to a main sewer become a problem sometime in the future.
“Residents who will occupy this type of proposal namely single persons who are in the main low income and whose needs are for reasonable priced accommodation that is close to amenities and shops with good transport links for work.”
