Brownhills metal waste plant poised for go-ahead

Tandom Metallurgical is behind plans for the former Wernicks Hire site in Apex Road after previous proposals were rejected earlier this year.

Under the proposal, the company will relocate from Birmingham and employ 20 staff, leading to an extra 10 positions being created.

However, two petitions with a total of 190 names have been collected amid concerns over extra traffic and pollution.

The firm has reduced the proposed amount of tons of metal passing through the site, leading to a drop in the number of vehicles at the site. The application is now being recommended for approval by Walsall Council planners tonight.

The change of use proposal would see the recladding of the existing warehouse and the installation of a weighbridge inside the yard.

The site was previously used for storage and distribution for temporary mobile buildings and has been empty for around five years.

If approved, the business will collect waste metal from industry, construction and demolition sites.

Processing activities would be undertaken at a sister company elsewhere.

Head of planning David Elsworthy says: "These revised proposals reduce the maximum level of throughput of waste through the site from 75,000 tonnes per annum to 50,000 tonnes per annum which will in turn reduce the numbers of vehicles coming and going to the site.

"This is a previously developed site in a sustainable location that has the potential to generate employment opportunities, the proposals would allow for the re-use of a site that has been vacant for approx five-and-a-half years and the improvement of a building that is now in a poor state of repair."

The scheme was revised to reduce the tonnage of material to pass through the site on an annual basis from 75,000 from the refused scheme to 50,000 tonnes per annum now.

It would see the number of vehicle movements each day reduced from around 76 to 60 of which half would be HGVs.

The initial proposal was turned down on the basis the proposed development would have a detrimental effect on the residents in nearby Pelsall Road.

This was due to concern over noise and activity on the site from an increase in traffic.

However, a report to the committee which meets in the Council Chamber this evening is recommending the application gets the go-ahead by councillors.