New moves in £30m courtroom plan

Grand plans for a new £30 million magistrates court for Wolverhampton are finally gathering pace – almost four years after they were first unveiled.

Officials revealed today that a business plan was now being drawn up for the purpose-built courthouse, which would be created in an empty city centre office building near to the market area.

The concept includes 14 court rooms, offices, secure accommodation for magistrates and judges, a custody area, public waiting rooms, a cafe and a 56-space guarded car park.

Plans to transform part of a 300-space public car park and redundant office block, at the junction of Darlington Street and the ring road, have failed to materialise since outline planning permission was granted back in November 2004.

But court service spokesman Mark Kram today confirmed the ambitious project is still going ahead.

“It is still a priority and a business plan is now being drawn up,” he told the Express & Star.

“There is not a date confirmed for the work but it is definitely going ahead.”

The development comes after workers moved in to spruce up the current magistrates court in North Street by re-painting the historic building.

The new court complex, which would be between three and six storeys high, will be built on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs under a private finance initiative. Around a quarter of the council-run Fold Street car park would also be lost to make way for it.

The current North Street courthouse was created in the 1970s by adapting the former town hall, a listed building dating from 1867.

The building houses the city’s magistrates’ courts, licensing justices and the coroner’s court.

Council bosses have not yet decided what it could be used for in future should the plans go ahead, although historians are calling for it to be turned into a museum celebrating Wolverhampton’s rich heritage.

City council leader Roger Lawrence has said the idea of a “significant” visitor attraction at the site had been touted before but would require a lot of outside investment.