Former Mile Cross Depot to become 67 social houses

The first stage of building work at the Mile Cross depot site has been approved by Norwich City Council.

Under the plans 67 homes will be built in terraces to the west of Mile Cross Road and all of these will be socially rented.

It is hoped that work can start on the scheme in the spring of 2025 (Image: Norwich City Council / Feilden + Mawson) This is the start of a scheme that will see up to 200 homes built at the site across three phases of development.

The majority of homes will have two bedrooms, but one-bed and four-bed properties will also be built at the site.

Plans for the initial 67 homes first emerged in February but City Hall was forced to make alterations to these designs to convince Norfolk County Council to drop an objection.

The flats and houses will vary in size (Image: Norwich City Council / Feilden + Mawson) However, plans to transform the former depot have been in the pipeline for seven years. 

Councillors first raised the idea of building houses at the derelict former depot in 2017 and set aside £41.3m for scheme, which has hit several hurdles.

The Mile Cross site was previously the council's City Works depot, where City Hall's fleet of vehicles and in-house workers were based.

The site is boarded up after the buildings were demolished (Image: Google) It then became the Mile Cross Business Centre and was home to about 30 small to medium-sized businesses.

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They were served notice as the council looked to develop the site and the buildings were later demolished. 

The former Mile Cross depot (Image: Keith Whitmore) The site was used to dispose of rubble after buildings in the city were bombed during the Baedeker Raids of 1942, so careful checks had to be carried out as part of the plans.

There has also been work to treat contaminated groundwater, by removing pollutants or converting them into harmless products.

The council confirmed last month that work on the scheme could finally get under way in the spring of 2025.