Plans for civil engineering firm to expand its Bilston headquarters to be discussed
Plans by a civil engineering firm to expand its Bilston headquarters will be discussed next week.
The move by McAuliffe Group, based in Northcott Road, Bilston, to build extra storage space at its head office will be decided by City of Wolverhampton Council’s planning committee on January 20.
McAuliffe Group, which deals with brownfield remediation or cleaning up and preparing land for other developers and housebuilders, says the extra space would allow it to collect and recycle closer to the 75,000 tonnes of material it currently has permission to process a year from its Bilston headquarters.
The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs would increase from 50 to 80 by 2028 according to the application.
The council asked for the plans to be redrawn after concerns were raised by neighbours.
The changes included reducing the number of storage bays from 10 to eight and including new landscaped bunds, more trees and extra planting to create a bigger ‘buffer’ between the site and nearby homes.
A number of complaints were made by neighbours in the summer over dust from the site and the council said it hopes the work would reduce the grime by landscaping the land rather than using it for aggregate storage.
The application said the proposed work would allow the “better and safer management of materials around the site” as well as reduce “operational intensity in the main part of the existing operational area” and “provide landscaped areas in existing sensitive areas of the site.”
A statement included with the application said: “[The expansion] will enable [McAuliffe] to further enhance their operations, consistently utilise full capacity and enhance and grow the workforce,” a statement included with the application said.
“Additionally, with enhanced materials management and storage across the site and wider operations, this enables the applicant to become more sustainable and provide the brownfield remediation training facility, focused on practical skills, machinery operations and materials management procedures.
“This enhances skills retention and complements existing priorities on training within Wolverhampton.
“Additionally, an expanded facility with additional space, would allow storage to be maintained to lower overall heights and equipment to be stored more centrally, all further away from residences to the west.”
The expansion of the firm’s site would see it border the planned new Foundry Business Park in Bilston.
Work continues on the 15-acre business park which will be built on that land that has stood vacant for more than 20 years and will offer office units to small and medium businesses.
At the time, West Midlands mayor Richard Parker said the new site would help pave the way for more than 300 jobs.
