Birmingham pub set to be bulldozed for £8m care facility

Amended plans have been submitted to demolish a vacant Birmingham pub and replace it with an £8m residential care facility.

Edgbaston-based MACC Care has submitted fresh plans to Birmingham City Council to develop a part three-storey and part four-storey 82-bed care home on the site of the Hare and Hounds public house in Marsh Hill, Erdington. The completed scheme could provide 70 jobs for the area.

The amended designs show the Marsh Hill access being removed as the care home building would be moved forward to front the street. The new access point would be from the Ivyfield Road frontage and provide a single in/out junction.

The proposal is for a care home that provides nursing and residential care to include care for dementia sufferers. In addition to the residential facilities, the new scheme would include a gym, library, café, chapel/ prayer area.

It is also envisaged that the care home would be a community facility, with it being used by members of the public over the age of 65 to meet and socialise.

The site is currently vacant with the public house having ceased operation earlier this year.

MACC, which operates four care homes in Birmingham – two in Erdington, one in Handsworth and one in Northfield that is under construction, has said the proposed care home would provide 24-hour care for residents, and would be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A public consultation following the submission of original plans showed many members of the public were favour of the site being retained for use as a pub.

However, supporting documents provided by Lambert Smith Hampton on behalf of the applicant showed such an option was no longer viable. The documents said that pubco Greene King had marketed the site after sales fell and profits declined due to increasing staffing costs and low customer numbers.

Following the marketing of the site in July 2016, there was little interest in taking on the pub as a going concern. The following month, the property was marketed online and 46 enquiries were received – five offered alternative uses but none were for the site’s continued use as a pub.

MACC eventually purchased the site in April this year in advance of the care home scheme.

A report to Thursday’s Birmingham planning committee states that while the loss of the pub was “regrettable” there were no grounds to oppose the care home scheme.

It said there were adequate alternative licensed premises within reasonable walking distance of the application site to meet the every day needs of the community.

“The development of the site would properly address the fundamental strands of the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework), namely meeting social, economic and environmental objectives,” states the report.

“The proposal constitutes sustainable development for which planning permission should be granted.”