KIDDERMINSTER’S former ambulance station is set to be demolished to make way for new homes.
Wyre Forest District Council has approved a planning application to demolish the building on Stourport Road, making way for the construction of eight new homes on the site.
The site was allocated for development and is already surrounded by residential homes, following the redevelopment of the Reilloc Chain Factory site.
The site will have a mix of four two-bed chalet bungalows and four three bed homes.
Permission for properties on the site was agreed in principle back in 2020, but a previous application to build eight homes on the site was refused in September 2024.
This previous development was deemed to have represented a poor design quality through incohesive house designs and disproportionate and unattractive architectural features.
Planning officers also felt insufficient levels of ecological surveying had been undertaken to ensure the scheme would not cause harm to protected species. Concerns were also raised about the development potentially proving to have an unacceptable adverse impact on highway safety.
A report in planning documents show an agreement has now been put in place with the highways officer and that sufficient information has now been received to demonstrate the scheme would not result in an unacceptable highway safety hazard.
The report added: “The proposal is now deemed to be acceptable and accords with the principal determining criteria of the relevant development plan policies.
“The level of detail now submitted in relation to Highways and Ecology, in combination with significant improvements to the design, layout and scale of the scheme overall, has reasonably led to the council making a different recommendation to the previously refused scheme.”
The applicant must now undertake a technical design check of the proposed highway improvement works with Worcestershire County Council’s highways team.
The station was closed back in 2019 following a rationalisation exercise, and its services were moved to three smaller community hubs within the district.
Although the site has been sold to the applicant, West Midlands Ambulance Service has maintained a presence at the station since its formal closure, including assisting with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The site comprises four buildings that formerly provided garages and servicing areas for the ambulance service.
