Enforcement action sought as embankment deemed 'risk to public safety'

The old GKN Driveline site is poised to become a business park but enforcement action is now being sought demanding that work on the site is stopped.

A council report on the plans states that an earth embankment is been created without planning permission on the boundary of Middlemore Lane West and an adjacent service road.

It claims the safety of pedestrians and road users have been put at risk as a result.

Walsall Council planning chiefs are being asked to support action to issue an enforcement notice which will demand work to stop immediately and a scheme to be submitted to the authority on how it will be reduced in size or removed completely.

If councillors give their backing at a meeting on Thursday, the issue will have to be resolved within six months of an enforcement notice coming into effect or prosecutions could be brought.

In a report to the council planning committee, the authority's head of planning and building control David Elsworthy said: "The embankment presents an immediate risk in the view of the local planning authority to public safety with regard to the potential collapse of the bank onto the public highway.

"The works undertaken have not been supported by the submission of any evidence from a recognised civil engineer or other qualified person able to verify the stability of the bank and are likely to present a risk to users of adjacent property and the public highway."

The work to build the bank is also claimed to have harmed trees surrounding the site.

Mr Elsworthy added: "The parking of vehicles atop of the embankment on the elevated plateau created through the unauthorised works has resulted in an unsafe form of parking provision on land believed by the local planning authority to be unstable and unsecured through the provision of suitable safety barriers to prevent falling."

Concerns have also been raised that the materials used to create the 'earth bank' may pose a risk to human health or the environment.

The old GKN Driveline site housed more than 200 workers before they were moved to a centre of excellence in Birmingham more than four years ago.

Since then developers have moved onto the former factory site in Middlemore Lane West, Aldridge, to turn it into a thriving industrial estate after pledging to invest £4 million.

Earlier this year, developers said they were hoping the first firm could move onto the site before the end of the year.

Plans to change the use of the building to cater for industrial, warehouse and distribution needs were approved by Walsall Council last year.

Original plans stated that up to 100 jobs could be created.