Firm plans expansion next to £12.5m business park

McAuliffe Group in Bilston has submitted plans to the council to build extra storage space at its Black Country head office

A civil engineering firm is planning to expand its site next to a new £12.5m business park outside Wolverhampton.

McAuliffe Group, based on Northcott Road, in Bilston, has submitted plans to City of Wolverhampton Council to build extra storage space at its Black Country head office.

Work on the neighbouring 15-acre (six-hectare) Foundry Business Park began at the end of last year.

At the time, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said it would help pave the way for more than 300 jobs.

McAuliffe Group specialises in cleaning up brownfield sites - areas previously developed, many of them industrial - for other developers and housebuilders.

The firm said the extra space at its Bilston headquarters would allow it to collect and recycle closer to the 75,000 tonnes of material it currently has permission to process a year.

In a statement included with the planning application, it said the move would help grow the workforce.

"Additionally, with enhanced materials management and storage across the site and wider operations, this enables the applicant to become more sustainable and provide the brownfield remediation training facility, focused on practical skills, machinery operations and materials management procedures," the statement read.

"This enhances skills retention and complements existing priorities on training within Wolverhampton."

The 15-acre Foundry Business Park is being built on land that has stood vacant for more than 20 years and will offer office units to small and medium businesses.

The business park development is another part of the Bilston Urban Village development which has included nearly 500 new homes.

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