Nearly 100 homes for former site of Brierley Hill rubbish mountain
Nearly 100 homes will be built on a site which was once blighted by a towering pile of rubbish in Brierley Hill.
Plans for 94 flats on the land in Moor Street have now been approved by council bosses.
A mountain of waste at the former RDF site once reached 40ft and plagued residents for several years before being cleared last year.
Councillor Rachel Harris, who represents the Brierley Hill ward, hailed the development as a 'new chapter' for the town.
She said: "This is great news. It is now finally time to move on and this will be a positive start to even more development along the Moor Street strip.
"To finally get this site developed on will be more attractive to other potential developers who might want to build further along.
"Moor Street has been looking very sad - we need this regeneration in the area. This has been something we have wanted for that site for a long time now.
"Its a new chapter for the continued development of Brierley Hill as being a thriving, great place to live and work."
Plans for the site had originally been put forward in early 2015, before stalling due to clearance of the site.
Each flat is proposed to have either one or two bedrooms.
Car parking will be designed for 100 cars with provision for 67 bicycles under five shelters.
A design and access statement adds: "This is a proposal to design a large modern housing scheme that will refresh the area from the existing scrap yard. Designing a five-storey building that follows the character of the town centre.
"Providing views onto the site that will visually improve the area aesthetically, areas of planting to allow the existing neighbouring trees to link with the site and become softer on the landscape while improving the ecological corridor along the trainline.
"This design will overall bring housing for 94 units with architectural design that will help build Brierley Hill an atmospheric and well built area that Dudley Metropolitan Borough is aiming for by 2026."
The clean up of the site took about 10 months, after the firm had allowed tons of waste to mount up since 2009.
The dispute over who was responsible went all the way up to the High Court, and in 2013 RDF company director Robert McNaughton was jailed for failing to remove it.
