Plans for new housing on site of old Wolverhampton pub
Plans to develop a long-vacant strip of brownfield land for additional housing on a Wolverhampton estate have been given the go-ahead.
City councillors agreed that the site on the corner of Inkerman Street and Wednesfield Road, Heath Town, could have up to six new homes built on it.
The land was formerly occupied by the Duke of York pub, but has been empty for more than ten years since the premises was closed and demolished.
During that time a variety of building projects have been put forward by different contractors but none has ever come to fruition.
Planners granted approval for the site to be subject to a local development order (LDO), which grants planning permission and is an alternative to a planning application.
Councillor Phil Page said: “I think this is something that we should support. This is a piece of land that can be brought back into use, and the residents and young people in the community are all involved.”
Opposition leader Councillor Wendy Thompson added: “I don’t think there’s any disagreement on this at all. When we went out to see the site it looked like a piece of scrubland which could be more usefully employed.
“I suspect that it’s also a target for anti-social behaviour, so something definitely needs doing with this land – either that it’s looked after properly or is used for housing, which I think is a very good use for it.”
In an earlier report to the committee, senior planning officer Phillip Walker said: “The government encourages local planning authorities to use LDOs to set the planning framework for particular areas or categories of development where the impacts would be acceptable and where this would promote economic, social or environmental gains for an area.
“The LDO is seen as the best way to bring forward development, since it is a flexible tool which has the ability to accelerate and simplify the planning process and make the investment more attractive.”
Wolverhampton Homes, which delivers and manages the council’s housing stock, will oversee development of the site.
Much of the Heath Town estate has already undergone extensive refurbishment and redevelopment work as part of an ongoing multi-million pound project.
