Work starts to turn former Walsall special school into homes
Multi-million pound work to transform a former special school into homes has begun.
Housebuilder Seddon will build 63 homes on the former Daw End Special School site in Walsall.
The £6.4m scheme will create 12 one-bed apartments, 12 two-bed apartments, 29 two-bed houses and 10 three-bed houses. The homes, being delivered for housing association Accord, will all be affordable rented properties and timber frame built.
As well as the homes there will also be 91 car parking spaces. The two bedroom houses would have two spaces each and the other three bedroom houses would have between one and two each.
To accommodate the extra cars, Floyds Lane will have a new T-junction built and a traffic calming raised table will be built across the access to reduce speed.
Work officially started on Thursday June 15 with a brick laying ceremony, attended by representatives from both Seddon and Accord.
It is hoped work will be completed in the summer of 2018.
Alan Yates, executive director of regeneration for Accord, said: “We are pleased to confirm that by working in partnership with Walsall Council, the Homes and Communities Agency, and partnering contractor Seddon, we are delivering 63 quality, affordable rent homes to help meet housing need.”
Steve Davies, business unit director for Seddon in the Midlands, added: “We have a long-standing history of working with housing associations in the North West and the Midlands to provide high quality social housing in the areas where it’s most needed.
"This development is no exception, we’re excited to be getting to work on transforming this disused site into a new, thriving community.”
The site at Floyds Lane, Rushall, sat vacant after the demolition of Daw End Special School in 2011.
Walsall Council originally owned the land but sold the site off for £1.1m and ploughed the proceeds into expanding Rushall Primary School and creating extra spaces for pupils.
The council made the decision in March 2016 to allocate the site for homes to satisfy the borough's need for housing, as well as to improve Rushall primary.
On top of this, the council had extra financial incentive as it no longer has to pay business rates on the former school site.
Plans for the site to be offload to developers were first mooted in 2013.
