Huge i54 expansion plans backed to create 1,300 jobs

Councillors are expected to rubber-stamp the proposals to develop land in Pendeford and expand the current development off the M54 near Wolverhampton.

It comes as part of major plans from Wolverhampton Council and Staffordshire County Council to extend the business hub, generating up to £600 million in investment and thousands of jobs.

In a report, Wolverhampton Council said: "The i54 site is of national significance and has secured £1bn of private sector investment and over 2m sqft of manufacturing and high value employment space in the last four years.

"Its extension will make a critically important contribution to the economic regeneration of the Black Country by providing for identified high quality strategic employment land needs which cannot be accommodated within the urban area.

"The proposals include for substantial tree and shrub planting and landscape bunds, particularly around the western and south western boundary.

"This will ensure that the development would not have a detrimental visual impact nor would it unacceptably detract from the residential amenity currently enjoyed by occupants of surrounding housing."

South Staffordshire Council's planning committee is expected to approve the plans at a meeting next Tuesday.

Proposals would see development on land between Wobaston Road, Pendeford Hall Lane and to the west of the current i54 site.

Between 1,367 and 1,667 jobs are expected to be created, a report to the council read.

The development would be accessed via the new junction off the M54 but a new access road will also be constructed, with proposals to also extend public transport services.

A report to the council read: "The existing i54 strategic employment area is generally regarded as a success, not only in meeting its economic objectives to attract high quality advanced manufacturing development, but also in environmental terms.

"It comprises good quality building decisions set in an attractive landscape that retains and enhances key economic assets.

"The current proposals for the western extension to the i54 development seek to follow similar design principals and standards to satisfactorily integrate the new development with the existing."

Plans form the first phase of the i54 Western Extension, which will see the business park extended by a total of 100 acres.

The remaining 40 acres, currently owned by Severn Trent’s Midlands Land Portfolio, is expected to form part of a separate application at a later date.

More than £1 billion has already been invested in the current i54 site, with 2,500 people employed by companies based there, including Jaguar Land Rover and Moog.

The development has created 2,500 jobs so far, which is expected to increase to 4,600 over the next couple of years.