Plans for new homes on eyesore land next to Wolverhampton's Bentley Bridge Retail Park

The patch of land in Rookery Street, Wednesfield, has been earmarked for housing and new shops since the Bentley Bridge Retail Park was built in the late 1990s.

Despite several plans coming and going for the site next to the retail park’s entrance since 1999, the land has remained empty.

A new planning application by Onkar Singh Mattu has now come forward looking to build eight two-bed homes.

This comes after City of Wolverhampton Council approved plans to build 20 flats on the site in October last year, plans that have now been deemed “unviable.”

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A statement included with the application said: “After inviting tenders and evaluating the market in the locale, the development as previously approved is not viable.

“We have therefore revisited the scheme and after further testing the market, it has become apparent that there is a shortage of smaller dwellings at a more affordable price in the area.”

The site has had a long planning history despite remaining empty for the last 25 years.

Wolverhampton Council first approved plans for 24 homes and flats in 1999, that was followed by another approval for seven shops and 19 flats in 2002 and then a plan for 23 flats was granted permission in 2005.

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Another plan for 32 flats was revealed then scrapped in 2007 and that was followed a year later by a plan for 22 flats and a new shop which was also eventually withdrawn.

Plans for 22 flats and a shop were eventually approved in 2010 but never built.

With nothing happening for more than a decade, the council then agreed to a move to build 20 flats on the site last year – the scheme that has now been called “unviable.”