Permission granted for new £12.5m council depot in Wolverhampton

City of Wolverhampton Council has approved its own planning application to build the new multi-million-pound depot and relocate its fleet of bin lorries, gritters, vans and minibuses from its existing city centre site in Culwell Street to Hickman Avenue.

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The city’s busy taxi licensing offices would also move from the former Loxdale Primary School in Bilston.

The existing depot in Culwell Street will be demolished to eventually make way for the huge Brewer’s Yard development which will see up to 1,300 flats and homes built on the land alongside space for shops, offices, restaurants and bars.

A report by the council’s planners said: “The relocation of fleet services will create construction jobs and apparently will reduce the council’s carbon footprint.

This includes support for its programme to deliver a fleet of electric vehicles.

“The proposed relocation of the council’s fleet services from its current Culwell Street depot will make them more efficient and [allows] the redevelopment of the Hickman Avenue site.

“According to the previous planning permission here, this development will facilitate the construction of a first phase of potentially hundreds of new residential units as part of the Brewers Yard city living regeneration masterplan.

“This planning application is therefore an important step in the regeneration of two strategically important city sites and will deliver significant benefits in terms of jobs, businesses and homes.”

The planning application for the new Hickman Avenue depot was submitted by the council in May which said the 12-month work was expected to start this month.

The new depot would replace the city’s 50-year-old wholesale market which was due to be revamped as part of the work but scrapped in a controversial move by the council in 2024.

The new depot would include electric vehicle (EV) charging points to accommodate the council’s growing fleet of low-emission plug-ins including more than 80 minibuses.

The council is replacing its 450-strong fleet with electric vehicles after committing to become a ‘carbon neutral’ authority by 2028.

The £12.5m contract for the new Hickman Avenue depot would be funded by £5.1m from the West Midlands Combined Authority, a £5m grant awarded to the city as part of the government’s Towns Fund, £1.6m from taxi licensing as well as loaning £750,000.

The council’s cabinet initially approved relocating its depot from Culwell Street to Hickman Avenue in 2021.

A new wholesale market was part of the council’s original plans before it said it could no longer afford the proposed £6m price tag or its £272,000-a-year running costs and was not legally required to provide a new facility.

“There is no statutory requirement for the council to provide accommodation for a small number of private businesses, nor is it appropriate to effectively subsidise profit-making businesses with taxpayers’ money,” the council said in a statement.

Labour council leader Stephen Simkins said the wholesale market was ‘half-empty’ and making a £160,000 yearly loss.

The market’s traders were given 12 months notice which the council underlined was longer than the minimum period in tenancy agreements.