Plan for £10m Bilston housing scheme revived

Multi-million pound proposals to turn the old Bilston Art College in Mount Pleasant into 20 apartments, plus build 44 new flats, were shelved due to the recession and replaced with a scheme for a residential care home.

However the site's owner now wants to go back to the original plans – but has asked to extend the amount of time available to begin the development.

Councillors in the town today called for "positive movement" at the crumbling site, which has lain empty for almost 15 years. Bilston ward councillor Stephen Simkins said he would support anything which would see the building brought back into use.

"It's a lovely old building – it just needs to be used," he said.

"It's such a high-profile building, and far too nice just to be left to rot. I would like it to be brought into whatever use is possible. Any movement at all will be really welcome."

Owner Surinder Singh bought the site in 2001 and has drawn up a series of proposals since then to try to bring the building back into use. The was even talk of reopening it as an educational centre at one point.

Plans to turn it into a housing development were approved by Wolverhampton City Council in 2008.

But, as the recession took hold, developers were slow to come forward and a new blueprint was drawn up – this time for a 23-bed care home, creating 13 new jobs.

But Mr Singh, of Compton Road West, today admitted that had not taken off either and said he wanted to keep his options open.

"I don't know when anything is going to happen. I have been talking to a number of different people about different things so we just have to wait and see," he said.

The building has been targeted by vandals since it closed in 1998.

The roof has been stripped by metal thieves and is now boarded up.

Both sets of plans won approval from councillors and planning officers who hoped work would begin to redevelop the building, which dates back more than 100 years, soon after they were approved.

The outbuildings would be demolished either way, with the main terracotta building revamped either into the apartments or residential rooms for elderly people.