Homes proposed at former Wolverhampton school site

Developers have submitted an application to redevelop the old Penn Fields Special School into 28 new homes and nine apartments.

The site is currently vacant after the demolition of the former school in Birches Barn Road and it already has outline planning consent for residential development.

A design and access statement, submitted with the plans, states: "The proposal will bring back into beneficial use a previously developed site, to provide a high quality and attractive residential scheme which will make a positive contribution right in the centre of the existing community.

"Furthermore, the redevelopment of this brownfield site for housing will help to minimise the need for the release of land from the green belt and other valuable open space, for residential development.

"The proposal would result in the remediation of the site and will add to the wider housing mix available in Penn Fields."

The new homes will be a mix of two and three storey housing and will be a mix of two, three and four bedroom homes, other with nine apartments.

Planning documents add: "The proposed residential development will make best use of an area of currently vacant and underused land in a very sustainable location."

Council bosses confirmed in November that the site had agreed to sell the land to a private developer.

Outline consent for homes was granted for the 2.45-acre plot in September, to include the provision of 25 per cent affordable housing and the school was bulldozed earlier this year.

The development will contribute towards the council's target of 13,400 new homes in the city between 2006 and 2026.

The school moved from the Birches Barn Road site in 2012 to a £45 million campus in Boundary Way, which it shares with Highfields School.

The scheme is the latest in a number of housing developments in the city.

A total of 100 new homes will be built on the site of Wolverhampton's former Armitage Shanks Tap Works.

The houses will be spread across three sites in Showell Road, Fifth Avenue and Broome Road, Low Hill.

A local development order has now been approved by the city council. This streamlines and speeds up the planning process by removing the need for a full planning application to the council.

And work has also started on a £2.2 million scheme to build 10 council houses for adult wheelchair users in the city.

The Care and Support Specialised Housing is being built at three separate sites in Lawnside Green, Stowlawn, Fifth Avenue, Low Hill and Dale Street, Graiseley.