Demolition work has started at a former glassworks site in Stourbridge, UK - although an agreement has still not been reached over how the site should be developed for housing.

Parts of the £15 million scheme to breathe new life into Stourbridge’s former Stuart Crystal site are having to be re-drawn as Dudley Council’s planning officers were not satisfied with some of the details.

Full plans were submitted by Complex Development Products of London for 105 apartments and 31 houses on the High Street site last September.

The firm obtained listed building consent at the end of last year and has started knocking down the buildings which are not listed for protection.

Officers at Dudley Council said there were a lot of important historical buildings on the site and the demolition work would help free up space so they could be restored.

Around half a dozen historic buildings which made up the former glassworks, including The Mill, will be retained.

Some of these will become studios for use by artists.

The layout and design of planned new buildings in the scheme have been criticised by planners at Dudley Council who warned they could be thrown out unless they were changed.

New plans are now awaited by officers but they were not expecting the scheme to go before planners in the near future, they said today.

Case officer Fasial Agha said: “We have asked the architects to revisit the scheme to make changes.

“It was not felt some of the buildings were appropriate in the setting.

“We are not expecting the scheme to go before the committee any time soon. There were a number of issues we were not happy with.”

Mr Agha said the council had had a recent meeting with the architects but the scheme was unlikely to come before the planning committee now until after the May elections.

The site has suffered from arson and vandal attacks since the glassworks closed. in 2001. Previously it been taken over by Waterford Wedgewood which then axed all 220 manufacturing jobs.

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