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,