Delay to Bilston 50-home scheme as plans re-drawn again
A plan to build more than 50 new homes in Bilston has been redrawn again.
Morro Partnerships revealed plans to knock down dilapidated units in Hatton Street and Greenway Road off Salop Street in Bilston and replace them with 51 ‘affordable’ houses more than 12 months ago.
The plans were put forward last July with 51 homes, then revised in July with an increased 56 homes, but have now been redrawn again to include 54 homes.
A letter from Urbanissta on behalf of the developer included with the application said the plans would be the “final full resubmission".
The land occupied by car dealer DH Autos was not originally included in the application from 15 months ago, as it was not under the developer’s ownership and was ‘undevelopable.’
The building occupied by J.R. Engineering on the corner of Salop Street and Greenway Road is not included within the boundary for the new homes.
‘Major’ planning applications are expected to be decided by the council within 13 weeks, or within six months at most.
Most of the units, which are home to a second-hand car dealership, repair shop, garages and factories, would all be demolished and replaced with a mix of two- and three-bed homes.
The July planning application said the extra homes – which also included a bigger share of two-bed homes – had been developed following talks with the council in the previous 12 months.
The land has long been earmarked as a site for new housing and has appeared in council blueprints for the last two decades.
The site is also included in the council’s ‘local plan’ which sets out where new homes will be built across Bilston and Wolverhampton up to 2042.
Hatton Street has also been a hotspot for fly-tipping in recent years with the council even resorting to offering £100 gift vouchers for information on perpetrators who were believed to have dumped between 30 and 40 tonnes of rubbish in the secluded street.
The huge piles of rubbish, which contained everything from beds to rubble to fridges, were blocking several businesses from carrying out deliveries.
A statement included with the application said building homes would make efficient use of an “underutilised” commercial site during a time of “pressing need for the city".
At the start of the year, £28 million plans to build new warehouses and industrial units on a nearby site off Brook Street in Bilston were approved by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The land, which has been empty for 15 years, will be used to house 15 new units, bringing with it, it is hoped, 330 new jobs.
