Two Wolverhampton nursing homes and resource centre to be bulldozed for housing
Two nursing homes and a resource centre which thousands of people campaigned to save are poised to be bulldozed for housing in Wolverhampton.
Merry Hill House in Langley Road, Nelson Mandela House in Whitburn Close and Warstones House Resource Centre in Warstones Gardens, are all set to be flattened despite the best efforts of residents and families from the area to keep them.
Trade union Unison had presented the city council with a petition signed by 5,637 people who wanted to save Merry Hill House and Nelson Mandela House, along with Woden Resource Centre, in Vicarage Road, which is also set to be bulldozed.
But despite the petition, handed in last November, the council's cabinet agreed to scrap the services in a move that is expected to save the authority around £2.6 million.
Warstones Resource Centre had been earmarked to be transformed into a community building, featuring a built-in library, health centre, meeting room and cafeteria, but the council shelved the plans in 2014.
The centre used to house a day care centre for elderly people fitted with respite and rehabilitation facilities, although that was shut down in 2012.
At the time, a petition launched to save the centre garnered more than 6,000 signatures. Jacobs UK has been commissioned to carry out the demolition work.
In the planning documents for all three, it reads: "The site has been earmarked for demolition to make way for general needs housing, subject to planning consent."
It added that the buildings are vacant work to bring down all three sites will commence in December this year.
