A new £30 million courthouse will be created in Wolverhampton it was confirmed today – despite three years passing since the plans first came to light.

The scheme to transform part of a 300-space public car park and the site of a redundant office block at the junction of Darlington Street and the ring road has hit the skids since outline planning permission was granted back in 2004.

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

The new complex, which would be between three and six storeys high, would be built on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs under a private finance initiative.

Around a quarter of Fold Street car park would be lost, along with the office block owned by Portland Building Society.

But Wolverhampton City Council is hoping to build a decked car park on the remainder of the Fold Street land to help compensate for the dozens of lost spaces.

An outline application for the development was approved in November 2004 and planning bosses had hoped to get the scheme kicked off this year.