PLANS to construct nine new homes on Tipton land have been scuppered due to concerns about potential mine shafts underneath.

Icon Properties UK had submitted a proposal to Sandwell Council to build nine houses on part of a disused railway line site off Oxford Way.

But planning officers threw the application out because a requested coal mining report to show whether of not mines were beneath the land wasn’t presented.

The properties would have been a mix of three and four bedroom semi and detached homes with landscaping and parking.

The developers said: “The site formed part of the disused railway line and has a boundary to the rear with the Birmingham New Road.

“The site is surrounded by residential properties comprising of two storey dwellings of differing sizes and styles.

“The proposed development will be accessed by new highway access from Oxford Way with a new tarmac access road to the site.

“The site is within easy access to the local amenities of Tipton with good transport links to all local and larger amenities and retail areas of Dudley, Merry Hill and Wolverhampton with good transport links to the motorway network.

“The dwelling has been deigned sympathetically to respect the surrounding dwellings with large windows to maximise the natural light to habitable rooms.”

But Sandwell Council planners said: “A Coal Mining report has been requested without receipt to prove/disprove the presence of mine entries within the site boundary.

“The Coal Authority maintains that this lack of information does not allow the local planning authority and the Coal Authority to properly assess the proposal in regards coal mining risk in the area.

“Given the lack of information, the local planning authority has not assessed the layout of the development and any potential impacts on the occupiers of nearby residential properties, and on highway safety as any discovery of any mineshafts might alter the layout plan submitted.”