Pallet firm can stay next to ‘at-risk’ listed maltings building after opening without permission

Industrial Pallet Solutions, based next to the Grade II listed Langley Maltings in Oldbury, opened in September 2021 but has only just received ‘retrospective’ permission from Sandwell Council following a year-long row with the authority’s planners and conservation officers.

The firm, which stores, repurposes and delivers pallets, moved onto the empty yard in Western Road, Oldbury, nearly three years ago but only applied for planning permission last March.

Sandwell Council’s planners finally managed to reach a decision after a back-and-forth with Industrial Pallet Solutions over the ‘significance’ of Langley Maltings and its current state, having been badly damaged by fire in 2009.

Sandwell Council said Industrial Pallet Solutions could continue storing wooden pallets and keep the facilities, which include a static caravan, office and storage space, ‘temporarily’ for five years.

Wooden pallets must be stored two-and-a-half-metres away from the listed building as a ‘buffer’, in the agreement now approved by the council’s planners.

The row started when conservation officers at Sandwell Council said it was “factually inaccurate” for the pallet storage business to say in its application the Grade II listed building had “no significance” and storing pallets next to it ‘did not cause any concern because it was derelict.’

The council said storing wooden pallets against the wall of the former malt house, which had already been badly damaged by fire, caused a “very real” fire risk.

The pallet business said it was not trying to “downplay” the historic significance of the building but highlighted its current state was “very badly fire-damaged and derelict” and it did not have “much aesthetic value".

The council said that saying the historic importance of the building only lay in its aesthetic value showed a “disappointing misunderstanding of [its] significance”.

The council reached an agreement earlier this month saying that while the plans were “not entirely aligned with the council’s aspirations” for the “industrial heritage site", the business had operated “without detriment” and “helped secure the site” against potential anti-social behaviour.

The council agreed to give the site ‘temporary’ five-year permission to “assess the impact".

The approval also came with a warning from the council’s conservation officer that “piecemeal” development on the yard could affect “future opportunities for bringing the listed building back into appropriate use.”

Langley Maltings was built in 1898 and remained in operation until 2006. It was significantly damaged in an arson attack in 2009 with most of the building’s roof destroyed.

Most of the site was saved from demolition in 2012 but the building has continued to decay.

The rot has not stopped and Langley Maltings was even placed among the country’s top 10 most endangered buildings by the Victorian Society in 2018.

Plans to open a concrete mixing site on the yard received temporary permission for five years from the council in 2016. After that permission lapsed, the site was then used to store wheelie bins and skips – also without permission.

Sandwell Council approved a permanent car dealership, car wash and repair centre and valet area on the opposite side of the yard in March 2023.