I notice from the planning system at Walsall Council, plus coverage in the inky press that there is at last a plan by Walsall Housing Group to build replacement homes on the site formerly occupied by the grim maisonette tenements that stood on the A5 Watling Street between Deakin Avenue and the Black Path.
The grimmest, most unpleasant and isolated social housing ever to have existed in Brownhills. Shown derelict in 2008, it was demolished in 2009. Good riddance.
The application is number 12/1408/FL, and because the geolocation is again buggered by the ancient planning interface Walsall Council uses, I can’t link to it directly. Go to this planning search page, and type the number in.
Remember, at this stage this is just a planning application, and you have time to object. It also doesn’t mean anything will get built. The flats currently being constructed on the corner of Ogley Road and High Street have been through several revisions and years of uncertainty.
I welcome plans by Walsall Housing Group to construct new houses and flats at this location. The plan is for a mixed development of eighteen houses and twelve flats which will transform what is now a piece of fenced-off wasteland.
Architect’s impression of the new development. Looks nice. Odd perspective in some of the drawings, mind. Suspect artist may be a bit astigmatic. Click for a larger version. Taken from documents supplied with application and held on Walsall ouncil’s Planning Interactive ‘service’.
I have no problem with this development whatsoever. It’s well past time that Walsall Housing group started bringing the huge swathes of derelict land it left during the clearances of 2003-2008 back into use. My only complaint is that a development here still leaves a huge amount of land undeveloped in Brownhills town centre – the sites of Bailey House, Silver Court Gardens and Wessex Close, not to mention the sites formerly occupied by garages nearby.
The layout looks sensible, with the flats block on the corner of Watling Street and Deaking Avenue as a gateway. The odd gap in the top left is due to the land, formerly occupied by garages and a run-down playground, was sold to a third party by the council long before the maisonettes were demolished. There are no applications for that site. Image taking from documents supplied with the planning application and held on Walsall Council’s ‘Planning Interactive’ service.
Associated documents in PDF format can be inspected by clicking the following links – all held with the planning application on Walsall Council’s Planning Interactive system,
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good spot Bob, i read into your article fully expecting the development to be on the site of Silver court gardens. i am amazed that some one has not shown a interest in developing it, as it would have trendy waterside properties. The only downside to the Silver court gardens plot would be the wretched Silver court shops. i feel sorry for the shopkeepers who rent them as they really could do with a major face-lift to say the least.
As you stated, it will be a welcome move if the plot on the a5 is utilized to put some decent modern homes on.
I was lucky enough to travel on business throughout what was the former East Germany (GDR) during the late 90’s. The picture you put up took me straight back to Chemnitz on a wet and windy Monday morning, its almost as if the same drawing was used to create the same building in both cities at the same time, mid 60’s?
I’m sure some folk will tell you that the building was their home and have fond memories, children were brought up there and may have been sad to see it demolished.
Lets hope that the next homes built there provide a nice house / home to those who live there and set down their own roots.
I was going to bring this to your attention, but things overtook me.
The land beside the canal is sure to be developed one day, but I’m not sure the current market will support “trendy”. The flats site is more manageable in scale – they are not developing all of the land that could be available even here – and reflects local needs at present. Another factor, perhaps, is that there has been a lot of development in the Catshill area.
Anyway, the proposed development, although seeming a shade austere, looks much better that the old flats and the current waste ground.
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