HMO plans for empty Wednesbury pub approved
A plan to convert an empty pub into an HMO has been given the green light by councillors.
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Nearly decade-old plans to turn the former Forge Tavern in Wednesbury into an eight-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO) were revived at the start of the year after moves to turn the old watering hole into an Islamic tuition centre were rejected by Sandwell Council.
The local authority’s planners have turned down several moves to bring the old pub back to life in the last eight years including two moves to open the tuition centre and two separate bids for a new community centre.
Sandwell Council’s planning committee approved the conversion for a second time in eight years at a meeting in Oldbury on April 2.
The council said the application received four objections over concerns about parking and potential antisocial behaviour.
The approved plans do not include converting the ground floor – which includes the former pub’s bar – which has been “reserved for future use” and which the council says would require a separate planning application to convert.
Ten parking spaces would be provided, which was deemed acceptable by the council.
The council said given its current state, converting the building would in fact “uplift the area” as the empty site had been a “constant issue.”
The efforts to breathe new life into the boarded-up pub, which closed in 2016, have included two separate applications to convert the building into an Islamic tuition centre.
Sandwell Council rejected those plans in 2018 and again in 2021 over concerns that poor public transport links and its ‘out-of-town-centre’ location could cause “severe” parking problems in the surrounding residential streets.
More plans to convert the pub into a community centre then came forward but were rejected in 2022 and 2024.
