Express & Star

Controversial Wolverhampton Environment Centre development a step closer

Work is poised to start building homes alongside a popular green walkway and cycle track.

Published
Wolverhampton Environment Centre

Ground investigations have finished with the signal given for the controversial 14-home development to go-ahead on the site of the former Wolverhampton Environment Centre, off Westacre Crescent, Finchfield.

It comes nearly two years after plans for the development, which will sit near the old Smestow Valley rail line and nature park, were approved despite sparking huge opposition locally with a petition was signed by more than 2,000 people.

A new report from funding authority the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership said “no further investigative works are required”, paving the way for the development to proceed.

The report said: “Consultation with the local community has led to the agreement that this 1.87-acre site will be developed with 14 new family homes, specifically aimed at local families.

“These new housing units will be two-storey units and will be built to complement the locale. This development will bring an otherwise derelict site back into use and contribute another 14 units of market sale homes.”

The area where the new two, three and four-bedroom properties will be built forms less than 10 per cent of the site, while the rest of the green space will be absorbed into the Smestow Valley nature reserve.

Glasshouses and other buildings will have to be flattened as part of the redevelopment of the area with a large portion of the site set aside for wildlife and opened up to the public as part of the adjoining Smestow Valley Local Nature Reserve.

Campaigners backing the petition had claimed the plans threatened to ruin the five and a half mile railway walk, popular with runners and dog walkers, and that a new access road would bring extra traffic.

Resident Steve Vanstone said: "Generally people who are aware of it are against it. There are lots of brownfield sites where houses could be built."