£45m plans submitted to rebuild ‘crumbling and uninviting’ Wolverhampton estate
Over 200 maisonettes in New Park Village could be replaced with new homes
Last updated 10th Oct 2024
Major plans to demolish and rebuild a Wolverhampton council estate have reached a new milestone.
More than 200 outdated maisonettes in New Park Village in Wolverhampton would be knocked down and replaced with new homes and flats as part of a £42m planning application submitted by City of Wolverhampton Council this week.
The existing maisonettes along the estate’s Longford Road and Ellteron Walk would all be demolished and replaced with a mix of one-to-four-bed homes and one-to-three-bed flats and maisonettes as well as new bungalows.
The new homes and flats would be built in two phases around a centrepiece green space at the heart of the new estate. The remodelled estate would be ‘greener’ according to the council’s planning application, and include an outdoor gym, play areas and rooftop gardens.
The council recently put a £4m contract for the first phase of demolition out to tender saying the work would be expected to be carried out between October 2025 and August 2026.
The estate was labelled as “uninviting” in surveys commissioned by the City of Wolverhampton Council as long as 20 years ago.
The same surveys said New Park Village’s maisonettes, which were built in the 1960s, were already showing signs of deterioration in the early 2000s and that was just one of several ‘defects’ that included cracking concrete walkways and balustrades that were in urgent need of repair. The homes were also poorly insulated and not fit for modern times.
More surveys were carried out in 2019 that only showed further signs of deterioration.
Structural problems and the ‘outdated, poor-quality, and substandard’ housing were not the only issues to be raised with anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping reported as a regular blight with a need for the estate to shake off its “uninviting” reputation – and “elevated crime rates” – also among the statements in the now decades-old reports.
After the issues had been raised following surveys in 2004 and 2013, it was finally announced in 2019 that much of New Park Village would be demolished and replaced. At the time the new homes were expected to have been built throughout the 2020 winter but have obviously now been severely delayed.
As much as £11m had been set aside for “refurbishments” to the estate until it was realised that would not be enough to fix the problems and it was upped to £25m. Later on, it was deemed that at least £38m would be needed to completely redevelop the estate so it could meet the right standards.
A questionnaire was sent to residents in 2019 with 75% supporting plans to demolish and rebuild the estate rather than refurbish the existing homes.