\n The planning application to Sandwell Council asks for permission to convert the club, which has stood in Smethwick High Street for more than 100 years, into a residential home for up to six children.\n<\/p>\n
\n A statement included with the application said: \u201cEmpire House Children\u2019s Home is seeking the necessary approval to care for six vulnerable children at the aforementioned address. \u201cThe premises have been previously used as a members\u2019 social club.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith members visiting the club from as early as 11am to 12pm 7 days a week.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe site is a detached building which stands alone at the end of a residential cul-de-sac surrounded by a beautiful wrap-around secluded garden ensuring safety and privacy for its residents.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe site also boasts four private parking spaces, with another 14 spaces in a public car park immediately facing the premises.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The planning application by Empire House Children\u2019s Home said the building was in a poor state and could become an eyesore and hotspot for anti-social behaviour.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cGiven the previous use of the premises, we believe the proposed use would be completely within keeping with the location and an improvement on its previous use,\u201d the statement continued.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe propose reduced car traffic, foot traffic, and turnover volume of people entering and exiting the building.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe new proposed use will bring the building back to a residential use. We believe that bringing the use of the building back to a residential bracket will be beneficial to both the street and its residents.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFurthermore, the building is in a poor state, requiring refurbishment immediately. Should the building not be permitted to be utilised, it would fall prey to becoming derelict, run down, an eyesore and a hotspot for anti-social behaviour, fires and criminality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The planning application to Sandwell Council asks for permission to convert the club, which has stood in Smethwick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-317811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}