Council house plans approved after years of delays

Myatt Avenue, Parkfields in 2019 after the site had been cleared of shrubs, trees and hedges.

A plan to build council houses in Wolverhampton has taken so long that the site, which was cleared five years ago, has overgrown again.

City of Wolverhampton Council has finally approved plans to build just six homes on land off Myatt Avenue in Parkfields.

The ground was cleared in 2019 after it was earmarked as a potential site for affordable housing, and homes had been expected to be built in 2020 and 2021.

The council said it had been a complex site, and the delay was caused by a change in building regulations and the scheme needing redesigning.

In the 1950s, a number of flats were built on the land – an old mineshaft entrance for the Rough Hills Colliery - but "severely" subsided and were demolished in the 1990s, remaining empty since.

Myatt Avenue was one of a dozen small sites the local council identified for social housing four years ago as part of £8 million plans to build more than 50 new homes.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.