COMPULSORY purchase powers are set to be evoked tonight (Wednesday) by Dudley Council to force through long-awaited redevelopment of derelict shops in Colley Gate.

The area has been blighted for several years by landowners who abandoned properties, which became derelict eyesores and targets for vandals.

Hortons’ Estate and Antringham Developments Ltd have been negotiating with Dudley Council for more than a year and the move will give the developer the ability to acquire the whole site.

Initial plans to move the Colley Lane library to the site have been dropped and although details of the current scheme have not been released, it is understood it will be essentially retail.

The plans could also encompass the Nisa supermarket and a report to Dudley Council’s cabinet meeting tonght said the long term solution relied on land assembly.

It said this would allow for a “comprehensive redevelopment or a mix of selective retention and redevelopment”.

The cabinet is also expected to approve that the council enters an agreement with the developer for the redevelopment of the site.

Members will be told the contract between the council and the developer will  mean any property acquired through CPOs would be purchased by the developer, who would also undertake to cover the council’s costs.

Strategic director of place Alan Lunt said: “This means that the council does not pay for a take ownership of the land.”

The cabinet is also set to agree to the transfer of some of the land at the site which it owns including a car park and the Golden Cup takeaway to the developer.

Cradley Action Group chairman Chris Legiewicz welcomed the planned land assembly.

She said: “For four-and-a-half years we have been campaigning and at one stage I feared we’d not get it sorted in my lifetime.

“But I do feel we have got somewhere now.”