Go-ahead to transform ‘eyesore’ land once home to cannabis farm and stables

The four three-bed houses will be built off Bloomfield Road after an application by Kevin Parkes from Coseley Properties was approved by Sandwell Council.

The overgrown land has been empty for years and was last used as stables, according to Sandwell Council’s planning records. The land was converted for keeping horses in 2004 and ‘temporary’ planning permission was granted in 2005 and again in 2007.

A planning application to build nine new flats on the patch of grass was approved by Sandwell Council in 2021 but the work was never carried out.

A neighbouring former vape shop, where a £500,000 cannabis farm was discovered in 2013, is also set to be converted into shops and a 12-bed HMO.

The empty shop in Bloomfield Road would be extended and converted into new retail units and a house of multiple occupation (HMO) according to plans by Sandeep Kaur Jawanda.

The application for the former vape shop includes three new retail units, new shop fronts, a single-storey extension, a two-storey rear extension and a loft conversion to make for the 12 new HMO rooms across three floors. The application includes no parking spaces.

The plans said the new retail units would be for the display and sale of goods and not a takeaway. The new flats would be accessed via Hipkins Street off Bloomfield Road. A plan for a 10-bed HMO and new shops in Bloomfield Road was put forward last year but has now been replaced with the latest application.

Before becoming a vape shop, the Bloomfield Road building was home to the Moto X motorcycle shop.

A cannabis factory, thought to be worth around £500,000, was discovered by West Midlands Police at the shop following a raid in 2013. It was believed to have been among the biggest discovery of drugs by police in the region that year.

Up to 27 homes are also set to be built a stone’s throw away on the former Roman Mosaic tile factory site.

The landmark Tipton site, with its well-known ‘Roman’ inscribed chimney, had become a target for vandals, arsonists and fly-tippers before the council approved plans to demolish the majority of the former factory site in 2018.