£3m care home for historic Tipton Baths site

The old site of Tipton Baths has been bought by Select Healthcare Developments who plan to build the new 30-bed site for people with complex care needs.

The building has already been demolished and subject to planning permission being granted, work is expected to start later this year.

Peter Cooke, managing director of Select Healthcare Developments, said the new care home would cater for stroke and brain injury patients.

He said: "The Tipton Baths have been demolished, we have filled all the mine shafts in and we are ready to start building once permission is approved.

"It is going to provide local job. It's going to be around 45 jobs so it as got to be good and it is probably in an area where people can walk to work."

The baths were replaced by the £8m Tipton Leisure Centre in 2013 on the corner of Alexandra Road and Thursfield Road.

Campaigners had fought to save the baths and a petition of more than 10,000 signatures against the closure of the Queens Road facility was taken to Downing Street.

Back in 2011 when it was initially proposed that the pool should be demolished, Tipton Civic Society urged the council to reconsider and turn it into a community facility. Bosses at the society argued the building had potential.

The baths were built on the land during 1933. Back in 2011 Tipton Civic Society bosses argued the land was originally purchased for the creation of Victoria Park by the old Tipton Urban District Council, which declared at a meeting on December 28, 1897, that it was 'to be a free gift to the inhabitants of Tipton to be maintained as a public park and recreation ground forever'.

Society bosses argue therefore that the land should remain for community use. Despite this the building was put up for sale in September 2012.