Computer generated image of the proposed fleet services depot at Hickman Avenue
City of Wolverhampton Council has submitted a planning application for the redevelopment of its Hickman Avenue site to accommodate a new fleet services depot.
If approved, demolition of existing light industrial units, not fit for purpose, could start in winter 2025/26 with construction works beginning in early 2026.
The scheme is designed to accommodate the council’s fleet services operation, which is due to relocate from its current Culwell Street depot in the city centre to pave the way for hundreds of new homes as part of the Brewers Yard regeneration masterplan.
The new Hickman Avenue depot would also become home to the council’s taxi licensing facility – which would move from the former Loxdale Primary School site earmarked for housing development – travel unit and street lighting and cleaning stores.
Early enabling works at Hickman Avenue saw unused ancillary buildings demolished, ground investigations carried out and two mineshafts remediated.
The relocation of fleet services and redevelopment works will lead to the creation of hundreds of construction jobs at the sites of the Culwell Street depot and former Loxdale Primary School, enable the reduction of the council’s carbon footprint and support its programme to deliver a fleet of electric vehicles.
Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for Resident Services, said: “This planning application puts forward proposals for a new purpose built depot that will enable the relocation of important council services to a more suitable base.
“It is also a critical step in bringing forward the regeneration of a strategically important brownfield site through the Brewers Yard scheme to deliver huge benefits in terms of jobs, investment and homes that will help rejuvenate our city centre.
“The Hickman Avenue redevelopment will ultimately ensure the sustainability of essential frontline services by consolidating, rationalising and optimising our operations. It will lead to reduced energy costs and asset maintenance and support the transition of the council’s combustion engine fleet to EV.”
Separate planning approval is already in place to demolish existing buildings at the Culwell Street depot site and remediate the brownfield land to make it ready for the development of hundreds of new homes as part of the Brewers Yard scheme in the coming years.
Once all the land is unlocked for housing the completed scheme will see a mixture of houses and apartments, and new retail and commercial space.
The development will also sit just a few hundred metres from the city’s new transport Interchange, providing quick, direct access to Birmingham, London and Manchester.