Some residents on Walsall’s Goscote estate will have to leave their homes as early as April so a demolition programme can get underway, it has emerged today.

People living in Middle Crescent are being moved on over the coming weeks during the early stages of a two year plan to bulldoze almost 300 properties.

Housing bosses want to build more modern up-to-date homes on the estate after pulling down 280 houses in Goscote Lodge Crescent, Hildicks Crescent and Middle Crescent.

The demolition has angered some residents who have claimed they were not fully informed of the proposals and haven’t been given much time to move out.

One resident, Melanie Friend, aged 38, said: “Residents are very angry, we didn’t know anything about all these homes being demolished until we read about it in the Express & Star last month.

“I don’t like way we have been informed and it is like we have been backed into a corner.

“There was a meeting with residents in Goscote on Thursday to discuss the proposals, but the opinion of those I have spoken to is that it was a waste of time.

“I have been offered the chance to move to Willenhall but that is not suitable.”

Of 281 homes, 45 are privately rented.