Plans to demolish Wolverhampton taxi offices at former school

Plans to demolish a council’s busy taxi licensing offices in a former primary school have been submitted for examination.

City of Wolverhampton Council has submitted a planning application to demolish the former Loxdale Primary School in Chapel Street, Bilston, which has housed the authority’s busy taxi offices, to eventually make way for new homes.

City of Wolverhampton Council is planning to build 50 new homes on the playing fields of the former school but the work has been hampered by delays due to the presence of mineshafts.

The former school has been used by the council as a base for its taxi licensing and inspection service since 2022 but is moving the operation to a purpose-built £12m depot in Hickman Avenue.

Last year, the council awarded a £3m contract to fill mineshafts and clear up the former Loxdale Primary School and the council-owned Stowheath Day Training Centre in East Park, Wolverhampton, for new affordable housing.

But ambitions for up to 150 homes across the two council-owned sites would not be fulfilled the local authority confirmed earlier this year with the number of homes cut to 89.

The awarding of the contract, which has now been made public by City of Wolverhampton Council, said a total of 89 homes were now proposed across the two sites with 50 built at Loxdale and 39 built at the Stowheath site.

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

City of Wolverhampton Council announced at the end of 2024 that it had been awarded £1.4m in government funding to help prepare the two sites in Bilston for new houses which, it was said, would help the work to start within the next 12 months.

Earlier this year, City of Wolverhampton Council approved plans 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.

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.

The new depot replaces 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.

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.

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.