Historic Bilston house gets go-ahead to be children’s home
An impressive house in Bilston is to become a children’s home after council bosses approved the plans.
The historic detached property which features ornate exterior arches and pillars is based on Wellington Road in Bilston. It was sold in April 2013 for £200,000.
The home, to be run by Friends & Co Ltd, will be registered to provide care and support for five children with autism and learning difficulties aged from eight to 18 years old.
The house will not be changed internally or externally according to the applicants, with three reception rooms on the upper floor and five bedrooms on the ground floor.
A statement from the application said: “Our aim is to integrate the young people into the local community without causing any undue attention to ourselves, the home or children living in the home.
“The children and young people which will be living at the home with have varied learning disabilities and autism requiring constant high levels of staff supervision to maintain their personal safety.”
CCTV will be installed in and around the site as well as floodlights.
The application continued: “There are alarms on the doors in the event a child or young person exits the home which will alert staff to follow to maintain their safety.
“However, from experience it is felt the rear garden will be more appealing for them to play with games trampoline etc.”
Currently, the house only has one parking space available, though the applicant is to ‘put a gate up instead of the wall, which will allow three cars on our drive. There are also two cars spaces available directly outside the home’.
The house is neighboured by Rees Page Solicitors and a community centre.
Staff at the community centre submitted a letter to the council following the application to create the children’s home.
It said: “Our estimate is that almost 200 people a week of all ages use the facilities provided by our busy centre. Some of members play amplified live music, which is essential, during their various activities and use PA systems for their social and cultural gatherings.
"So, from these facts we may say here that there is bound to be some noise around our centre which might infiltrate to the next door house.
“In view of the above facts we have to state here that if the plans are approved to have a children’s care home we will not be in a position to reduce the noise coming from our premises and we will not consider such objection (of noise) whatsoever from the children’s care home.
“However, our management committee met and after discussion it was resolved that we have no objection if the above property is changed from dwelling house to children’s home, but you must consider our views.”
No-one from Friends & Co was available to comment.
