Wolverhampton Rejects Church Demolition for Homes Due to Poor Design

Wolverhampton rejected a plan for new houses on the old Fordhouses Methodist Church site. The church is on Stafford Road, and the plan involved demolishing it to make way for nine homes with two or three bedrooms.

The council cited community use designation for the site and deemed nine homes excessive. They also criticized the layout, design, and the £450,000 asking price.

The council maintained that ‘all reasonable efforts’ to retain the building had not been made, pointing to marketing shortcomings in a report explaining their decision. A fitness center offer highlighted a viable alternative use. The council suggested eighteen months of marketing rather than six. Planners further criticized cramped gardens.

The council preferred fewer houses and larger gardens, aligning with the local area’s character and respecting its spacious gardens. This was considered crucial for local acceptance.

The church closed in March 2020 due to declining numbers and has remained vacant since. The council condemned the ninety-year-old building after a roof collapse exposed asbestos, according to the developer, Meronford.

The building sold for £205,000 last year with a 2023 plan inquiring about building thirteen homes or flats that received an unenthusiastic response from planners. The council viewed that plan being too intensive and lamented the loss of community space.

Meronford argued the revised plans fit the area and that keeping the church open was uneconomical. They said the site is semi-derelict, vacant, and unsafe due to a prior roof collapse.

The developer aimed to repurpose the site with two or three bedroom, semi-detached or terraced low to mid-range housing. Meronford believes this is the most fitting reuse, providing a windfall brownfield site of architectural merit, and meeting the city’s housing needs.