Developers have redrawn plans for the former West Midlands Police training centre in Smethwick, reducing the number of proposed co-living rooms from 76 to 69 after the previous application was rejected by Sandwell Council.
The revised application, submitted by Kamraan Ahmed of Meizon, seeks permission to convert Windmill House in Windmill Lane into 69 one-bed flats. The council had previously refused plans to turn the building into a 76-bed house of multiple occupation (HMO), describing the earlier proposals as “oppressive” and “substandard.”
Revised proposals aim to address council concerns
A statement accompanying the new application said: “Following extensive review, the proposals have been comprehensively revised. The number of co-living rooms has been reduced from 76 to 69, allowing a substantial increase in on-site parking from 23 to 35 spaces. Internal layouts have been refined to improve the quality of accommodation and communal facilities, whilst external amenity has been enhanced through a redesigned first-floor roof terrace directly connected to the residents’ lounge, improved landscaped gardens and the relocation of refuse and cycle storage.”
The three-storey building, which dates back to the 1970s, was used by the region’s police force as a training centre and accommodation until it closed last year. The empty site is now the subject of a fresh planning application after the council’s earlier rejection.
Council had raised multiple objections
In rejecting the previous application, Sandwell Council said ground floor rooms would have “unacceptable” views of warehouses, boundary treatments and cycle storage. Planners also argued the conversion would lead to “direct and intrusive overlooking” and a loss of privacy for neighbours, and called the building’s communal facilities “inadequate.”
“The proposal lacks sufficient usable and accessible external amenity space, demonstrates poor pedestrian connectivity from the car park to the rear of the site, and provides inadequate accessibility to cycle storage,” the council said in its rejection. “The first-floor communal terrace is poorly accessed and fails to provide appropriate defensible space and privacy for adjacent residential units. Furthermore, the siting and scale of the refuse storage to the front of the site, without additional provision to serve the rear wing, would result in unsatisfactory and impractical waste management arrangements for future occupiers.”
The previous plan would have reduced the site’s 47 car park spaces to 23, which the council’s planners said was a “significant shortfall” compared with the 38 spaces required.
Site sold as surplus to police requirements
Windmill House was sold to MNP Investment Holdings in June last year as one of several West Midlands Police properties deemed “surplus to requirements.” The planning application says the proposed HMO was designed to support healthcare workers at the nearby Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, which opened in 2024.
The surrounding area is being primed for regeneration, with plans including hundreds of new homes and a new school. The revised application will now be considered by Sandwell Council, which will assess whether the changes address the concerns raised in the previous rejection.
