A HUGE office block in Halesowen will be converted into a new campus to house more than 700 students by Halesowen College.

The college has been given the go-ahead to convert the east wing of Trinity Point on New Road near Earls Island.

It will refurbish the building to create classrooms, studios, a student café/hub, staff offices and student welfare facilities for 720 students and 60 staff.

Noes from planners at Dudley Council state there will not be extra coaches as the new campus will take students from other existing campuses.

They state pupils attending Trinity Point will walk from existing coach drop-off points at Whittingham Road and Furnace Lane.

There will be a parent drop-off point within the existing car park at Trinity Point, which will have 72 spaces, to "alleviate pressures on the existing highway network to discourage indiscriminate parking on the wider highway network and to ensure the existing bus stop is not impeded by cars stopping to drop off students within the opposing bus layby or at that the Whittingham Road campus."

Halesowen News: The proposed car parking layout The proposed car parking layout (Image: Gould Singleton Architects)

Planners at Dudley Council approved the application stating: "On balance, the proposed change of use to create a new educational facility at Trinity Point is considered acceptable in principle as the proposal would support the existing function of the Halesowen College without any expansion or growth."

There will be changes to the outside of the building with louvres added to the south elevation of the east wing.

The college currently has three sites – the main Whittingham Road Campus, Shenstone House on Dudley Road, Halesowen and a unit on the Coombs Wood Business park.

It states existing campuses are "overcrowded."

Windsor Academy Trust is based in the West Wing which has four storeys - the two wings are joined by a central link.