Increase in number of homes to be built
More than 90 new homes are set to be built on a derelict Sandwell factory site, near the borders with Dudley and Wolverhampton.
More than 90 new homes are set to be built on a derelict Sandwell factory site, near the borders with Dudley and Wolverhampton.
Developers are hoping to plough ahead with the scheme despite the recession after submitting revised plans to flatten the industrial units on Batmans Hill Road in Tipton, near the border with Coseley and Bilston, and replace them with houses. Permission was granted earlier this year for 78 homes, but the numbers of four-bed homes are to be scaled down.
This is in response to a lack of demand in the current market. They will be replaced with a greater number of affordable houses.
The amended application from CALA Homes will now go back before planning bosses. Proposals include 29 two-bed, 44 three-bed and 17 four-bed houses and a single one-bed flat.
A quarter of the site will be affordable homes operated by Bromford Housing Group.
Planning permission already exists for a mixture of 78 homes, but a report to Sandwell Council planners says a new mix of homes is proposed due to a "change in market conditions", with a higher proportion of affordable housing.
The proposed new housing estate, off Batmans Hill Road, Brierley Lane and Purdy Road, is next to a travellers' site.
Two of the businesses formerly occupying industrial units on the land, Hague Fastenings and Wilcox, have already sold their properties to Cala Homes and invested in more modern premises nearby, while the rest of the site has been left derelict for some time.
Great Bridge councillor Derek Rowley said the plans would be welcomed by most people in the area as the factory units had been an "eyesore" for a long time.
"It's a derelict site and it's been virtually derelict for a long, long time," he said.
"It is opposite residential dwellings and the businesses have created a bit of nuisance over the years.
"The social houses are what we need in the area at the moment," he added.
CALA Homes Midlands land director Matt Gallagher said: "This new development will offer high specification, good value new homes for local buyers."
