Historic factory in Walsall bulldozed to make way for new tip
This is the site of an historic factory which has been cleared to make way for a new tip.
Walsall Council has chosen the site of the former McKechnie Brass factory on Middlemore Lane, Aldridge, to build a new waste transfer station, which bosses say the borough is in desperate need of.
The authority has bought the site from its previous owner after plans to create new industrial units stalled.
The former brass factory once employed more than 1,000 people in Walsall.
The "super tip" could be up and running in two to three years, if it secures approval from planning bosses, and would result in the closure of the tip at Merchants Way and the outdated site at Friars Road, Bloxwich, being scaled down.
Council officials have been searching for an ideal site for a new tip in recent years and have decided McKechnie Brass fits the bill.
McKechnie dated back more than a century but shut down amid debts of £3.8 million, causing 60 job losses.
Before its closure, the site was thought to be the UK’s last remaining factory making brass rods and copper wires for a range of products including copper alloys and padlocks.
Plans to redevelop the site into a trading estate were shelved in 2017.
