Birmingham Councillor forces owner to seek retrospective planning permission for gutting historic Moseley building

Councillor Martin Mullaney, Moseley and Kings Heath Ward, is urging members of the public to object to a planning application where the owner of a historic Moseley building is seeking retrospective permission for gutting the interior of the building.

The grade II statutory listed building is the former tram depot offices at 582 Moseley Road, Moseley.

The owner has recently removed all the original walls, ground floor plate and half the first floor plate. He has installed a new concrete ground floor 1metre below the original level of the ground floor. Visitors will therefore step down into the ground floor when visiting the building.

The planning application is S/05475/07/LBC and the drawings can be seen at http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=67548&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=12189

The gutting of the building was spotted by Councillor Mullaney and reported to the Council.

The statutory listing of the building protects the interior of the building, but the owner has the right to seek retrospective planning permission. If planning permission is refused, the Council can make the owner put the building back to how it originally was.

In the planning application, the owner is seeking retrospective permission to install the ground floor 1 metre below the original level; remove the first floor completely and install a new floor 30centimetres higher than the original first floor. The owner then wants to install a new floor in between the ground and 1st floor – this floor plate would cut across the middle of the ground floor windows and be seen from the outside.

Councillor Mullaney has been concerned about work at the building for the last two years and produced a YouTube video about the building in March at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yv2Yxk5Eegg

This video was subsequently used by the Council to force the owner to start work on the building again. The Standards Boards are presently investigating Councillor Mullaney for producing the video, since they claim it’s production showed disrespect to the owner of the building and brought the office of Councillor into dispute. Councillor Mullaney is denying any Code of Conduct was broken and that the production of the video was in the public interest – the investigation is on going.