'We're condemned': The families with homes to be bulldozed for freight hub
An 86-year-old who has had open heart surgery and battled cancer twice could be forced out of his home to make way for a proposed rail freight hub.
Len Phelps lives in his son and daughter-in-law’s house on the Straight Mile in Four Ashes.
It is one of 11 properties – including a children’s home – that could be demolished to make way for the proposed West Midlands Interchange, near Gailey.
Developers are in talks with homeowners about purchasing their properties so they can be bulldozed to make way for the huge warehouse complex.
The multi-million pound scheme would see 700 acres of Staffordshire countryside transformed into a rail terminal with 3,000 lorries a day entering and leaving the site.
Former Wolverhampton University lecturer Mr Phelps has lived on the Straight Mile since 2014.
He said: “Last year I had open heart surgery and a second go at bowel cancer and had bladder cancer.
“At my age do I want to up sticks now? I lost my wife in 2014 and that was the reason I came to live here. I don’t need this.
“It’s an ideal place to walk the dogs but not so much because of the traffic in the area now.
“With this new hub that’s going to be situated here we’re condemned. Originally the land all along the Straight Mile was not going to be encroached on but we would have had four-story buildings on the other side of the road.
“We’ve been here since 2013 and didn’t know about that then. The transport has increased in the past few years. You get great big heavy lorries coming past from as early as 4am.
“My son and daughter-in-law have asked how long it will this take? And they’ve been told it could be 10 years. “
Public exhibitions are continuing as part of a consultation exercise over the controversial plans. In total, 43 existing buildings would have to be demolished.
Gravelly Way Farm – which is located on the site – would be converted into estate management offices and ‘welfare facilities’, under the plans.
Four properties on Vicarage Road could also be knocked down, along with three on the Straight Mile, and one each on Stafford Road and Watling Street.
One home in Croft Lane would be demolished as part of plans to create one of two ‘community parks’. Seven electricity pylons that cross the site will also have to be removed. All electricity supply would be moved underground.
Campaigner Donna Gilmartin, chair of the Stop The Gailey Freight Hub, has lived in Croft Lane with her husband Ged Gilmartin for 28 years.
Her house will back onto the hub and a business and house owned by her family in the road will be bulldozed under the plans.
She said: “You can hear the birds in the garden now. There’s a slight rumble of the M6 but we’re going to hear containers clanging, a dual carriageway in the area. The whole thing is an absolute nightmare.
“There are other places to put this, there’s brownfield sites in Telford and Stoke-on-Trent. We’ll keep going and going until the bitter end.”
South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson, who is also fighting the scheme, added: “This is just another reason to oppose these monstrous proposals.
“It will see the erosion of our history in the area with beautiful cottages and family homes being bulldozed with absolutely no care about their heritage or character.”
Peter Frost, Four Ashes Ltd, which is behind the proposal, said: “All agreements are voluntary and they are progressing.
“The reason for us wanting to purchase them is they are required for the project and it is not suitable to have them within the red line of a development like this.”
