Plan for 800 new Walsall homes

Plans for more than 800 long-awaited new homes on the site of an abandoned Walsall estate are set to be submitted early in the new year.

Walsall Housing Group and Walsall Council are expected to apply for outline planning permission for 808 homes in Goscote, Blakenall. Two new main routes through the estate would also be created. Currently, property advisers GVA have applied to the local authority to "screen opinion" on the plan.

New homes would be built in streets including Shakespeare Crescent, Keats Road, Goscote Lodge Crescent, Hildicks Crescent and Goscote Lane.

Hundreds of homes have already been bulldozed to make way for the large-scale multi-million pound regeneration scheme.

A letter sent to planners at Walsall Council by GVA says: "Our clients Walsall Housing Group in partnership with Walsall Council, intend to submit an outline planning application in relation to the Goscote Development Package, a residential redevelopment scheme, early in the new year."

Five sites will be transformed with 703 homes, while 105 homes will be built on two further patches of land. More than 69 acres of land is set to be redeveloped.

Blakenall councillor Ian Robertson said today: "We certainly welcome this as there is open space there being used for fly-tipping and it looks dreadful." He said people living in the area would be fully consulted on the plans.

Demolition of hundreds of homes began in 2008 but a large swathe of land has stood empty since then, becoming a magnet for arsonists and fly-tippers.

Hundreds of families were moved to new houses in the borough. But one homeowner in Goscote Lodge Crescent refused to move out of his home of more than 20 years until he was given an "acceptable" offer.

Glenn Miller stood firm for more than two years, with the issue only getting resolved in July.

By Catherine Dalton