Campaign To Save The Red House
The Friends of Red House Park have always believed that the house itself could be used for community use and over the years have campaigned for this.
On Sunday 4th February 2007 over 300 people turned up to show their support.
More than 60 people attended the Friends of Red House Park meeting on 19th February. Councillor Bob Badham was griiled by residents over plans for the building. They were told the cost of bringing the building back into use has been estimated at £1.7 million.
As reported in the press there is growing concern for the future of the house - see Great Barr Observer (PDF) article here.
While many ideas were put forward for the house the council decided in 2015 that the only option was to sell the house for conversion into apartments and to allow additional houses to be built as well.
Chairman of the Friends of Red House Park, Bill Gunn, who worked to save the house for more than a decade, was resigned to the news, saying “it’s a sad day.” “All the work from our 13-year campaign is gone,” he told the Great Barr Observer. “I would just like to thank the public and everyone for all the help they’ve given us over the years. We never objected to the house becoming flats because at least that would save it, but we could never agree to the six houses – they are going to use up most of the car parking near to the house that we need for park visitors and the people that play football here on Saturdays and Sundays. “They got to make 28 parking spaces for the new residents. We took photos of the parking as it is to show the council how the spaces are needed and we handed them into the planning department, but it hasn’t made a scrap of difference. I feel sorry for the people living in Hill Lane and Fairyfield Avenue who are going to have more people parking there in the future. “I’m just sad that the council could find millions of pounds to spend on The Public when nobody wanted it, and can find the money for Lightwoods Park, which has only been under their control for a few years, yet they could never help the Red House.”