Former Tile Hill police station to be demolished for new homes

[dutchman]

It closed in 2015 and the land sold by West Midlands Police



Planners have given the green light for an old police station in Coventry to be demolished making way for new homes.

The city council’s planning committee gave the green light for plans at the old Tile Hill Police station, at the junction of Tile Hill Lane and Tremelay Drive, on July 16.

West Midlands Police sold the site off in 2015 as part of a money-saving review and developers have circled the building for redevelopment since.

A previous mixed house and flats scheme was rejected in 2018 and again on appeal but agreement has now been found for six two-bedroom flats, five one-bedroom flats and two detached houses.

Compared to the previously refused application, the new plans removed one detached house, increased parking to 22 spaces and secured Section 106 funding of £15,375 towards local green space.

Coventry City Council’s planning committee approved it nine for and one against.

Some local opposition remained however.

Resident Martin Pritchard said there were road safety concerns over “additional traffic on what is already a busy junction”, that it would add to parking issues and result in the loss of the only green space on the estate.

Councillors on the committee also raised concerns about the parking spaces provided, the “rabbit hutch” size of the rooms, and the residential use only.

“It’s another community area for which we could have used for other things besides this,” Cllr Catherine Miks said.

Cllr Lindsley Havard added: “I looked at the bedrooms and thought where on earth are they going to store their clothes? There seems no space at all.”

But planning officer Emma Spandley said parking was “the maximum” and both that and the room space was in accordance with council policies, while there were no objections from statutory consultees.

“For me I would hope that when we look again at that plan [planning policy] we think about the space we allocate for people to live in, play on and for people to park on,” Cllr Havard added.