An eyesore former petrol station site in Wolverhampton is ready to be transformed with a £2.7million housing development. Workers have spent eight months on a remediation project at the Texaco site in Stafford Road, Fordhouses.

The garage, which stood at one of Wolverhampton’s main gateways, closed its doors in 2004 but petrol leaking into the ground left the area contaminated and unsuitable for development until the clean-up. Fifteen homes will be built on the site, which is near The Vine island.

They will comprise two detached four-bedroom houses, seven three-storey four-bedroom townhouses and six two-bedroom apartments.

Half have been snapped up by buyers off the plans, despite the project not expected to be complete until the summer.

Neil Roe, director of Tamworth-based developer Kingswater Homes, said: “Petrol had been leaking into the ground at the site for over five years, which immediately made the prospect of using the location for development too difficult for many developers.

“With the land already earmarked for development, Texaco approached us to see if we would be interested in taking on the task of bringing the site back to life.

“Many developers investigated the possibility of using the site but were put off by the difficulties presented by the contaminated land.

“This entailed an eight-month remediation process to clean up the land and make it ready for building work to commence.”

A number of petrol stations in the region have shut to make way for housing amid soaring prices at the pumps, with garage bosses urging the Government to cut fuel tax or face a 2008 of discontent.

Planning chiefs in Wolverhampton recently backed plans to transform another former Texaco garage site. Four-storey blocks of flats will now be built on the Birmingham New Road site, which neighbours complained had degenerated into a rundown eyesore.

Last year, the former garage was taken over by travellers, who left it strewn with tyres and rubbish.