Homes plan for Baggeridge Brickworks site

Baggeridge Brickworks, once owned by the Earls of Dudley, will be transformed by the controversial scheme which will include a community centre, nursing home and craft workshops.

Developers David Wilson Homes and Weinerberger originally planned for 140 homes on the site but have now increased the number of properties and revealed that some of them will be designated affordable homes that will be available for first time buyers.

Outline plans for the scheme were first submitted several years ago but turned down by South Staffordshire Council planners who feared it would be too big for the site.

Its decision was later overturned by the Planning Inspectorate following a public inquiry.

Now detailed plans for the scheme in Gospel End, Sedgley, have been submitted to the council.

Of the 170 homes, 20 will be one-bed, 51 two-bed, 22 three-bed and 77 will be four-bed or more.

As well as the homes, the proposal will include 12 workshop units next to the main chimney stack, which is to be retained at the request of the council.

A model railway building will be replaced and a new link road from the A463 will also be created to reduce traffic. There will also be improvements to walkways into Gospel End village.

In a planning support statement, Frank Hayes, director of agents Wardell Armstrong, said: "The development will provide craft workshops contributing to local employment and tourism, a nursing home, also providing employment, and contribute to achieving South Staffordshire's housing targets whilst providing badly-needed affordable housing."

Gardening allotments will also be created for the local parish. The planning report says the workshop units will create 20 jobs. Building work will result in 15 people being employed.

If approved, it will be the end of the site's long association with brickmaking which stretches back to the 1930s.

The site was once part of the Earl of Dudley's Baggeridge Colliery where bricks were made as a sideline to mining operations.