This mock Tudor Style pub was built 83 years ago and served the local community very well but it has now laid empty now for 10 years, and has been subject to a number of fires There has been plans in the past to turn it into a mosque but plans submitted to Sandwell Council last month would now see it being be demolished completely and two new retail units and 14 flats put on the site, Simply Fresh have expressed an interest in taking one of the units leaving a smaller unit unassigned.

The shops and flats would be part of a four storey development with parking spaces both for the retail units and for residential use.

The four-storey building would have space for two ground-floor shops and 12 one, two, and three-bed flats on the site of this former pub in Dog Kennel Lane and Vicarage Road in Oldbury.
Details of the proposal can be found here. The Merrivale Vicarage Road Oldbury B68 8HT

Clive Heywood (Bristnall), Ejaz Ahmed, Keith Wilmot, and Wikas Khan (Oldbury) 

Local Liberal Democrats object to the plans on the following grounds:

1. There are already two supermarkets opposite the site – A Londis Supermarket and a Lifestyle Express Supermarket (on Dog Kennel Lane)- so there is no need to have additional retail units in this development, this planning application should be refused and resubmitted without the retail units as there is a critical need in Sandwell for more residential units
2. There is no provision for ‘Affordable Housing’ in these plans – even though government rules state any residential development of more than 10 units should have an element of ‘Affordable Housing’.  These types of units are desperately needed in Sandwell as Sandwell is the 12th most deprived borough in the country and it is extremely difficult for people on low incomes to get onto the housing ladder
3. Although we would be very happy to have this long-standing eyesore removed residents have concerns about the access road and its effect on residents of adjacent Thornwood Close.
4. There are 29 trees and 4 groups of trees on the current site and only 10 trees will be retained and protected. We feel plans should be amended to retain more of them. Sandwell ranks the worse of the four Black Country boroughs for tree cover and needs to do more to retain what it has.
5. Developers in England will be required to deliver 10% “Biodiversity Net Gain” from January 2024 onwards. There is no mention in the planning documents of how and if this will be achieved. Therefore, the plans should be resubmitted with plans to achieve a 10% net biodiversity gain.

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