A Foreword by John McDermott, Chairman of the City Centre Neighbourhood Forum:
‘Given all the major changes to the city centre public realm it is easy to loose sight of the big picture. At this month’s City Centre Strategic Board Meeting this briefing paper was presented. It gives a clear overview of the city centre plans completed, in progress and to come. I hope you find it interesting and informative.’ Continue reading
News of the £1.5 billion redevelopment of the old Smithfield wholesale market site.
View this new post on Leader of Birmingham website. Continue reading
Birmingham Cycle Revolution* is planning a cycleway from Selly Oak to Hurst Street in the city centre. This no half hearted relabelling of space. The design, in my humble opinion, is a stroke of genius! Continue reading
The future development of the Metro tram system is organised differently from the Snow Hill to Grand Central one which opened on 30 May 2016. Further extensions to the existing network will be of great benefit to West Midlands folk and visitors and should encourage new business investment in the region. Continue reading
What is MIPIM? Read on to find out and how the City of Birmingham is involved.
The area currently occupied by the wholesale markets is the subject of plans to create an exciting multi-faceted public place in central Birmingham. Continue reading
The transformation of Paradise Circus between Broad Street and the Town Hall starts in January. A website of artist’s impressions and timescales is now online. Continue reading
Time is running out for you to have your say on the details of the 20mph traffic calming measures in the city centre.
More information has now become available from Centro on the proposed “Sprint” Rapid Transport System. The following has been gleaned from published literature and from Centro personnel.
Centro has announced plans for a bus-type rapid transport system to run along the No9 bus route from Colmore Row along Broad Street and Hagley Road up to Quinton. This could be operational by 2016. Continue reading
Network Rail has given notice of changes to the original plans for the redevelopment of NewStreet Gateway station project. Continue reading
If you wander around Bull Street, Corporation Street and Stephenson Street (the street outside the New Street Station entrance), you will now see signs that the Metro track is at last being laid.
Image:New tram as it will appear in Stephenson Street. Photo courtesy of Centro. Continue reading
Logo by Birmingham City Council
The consultation details on this have now been published.
The consultation starts today, Monday 25 November, and finishes on Friday 24 January. Continue reading
Logo by Birmingham City Council
This is really important to City Dwellers and can have good and bad impacts on peoples’ lives depending on their transport needs… Continue reading
Birmingham City Council has issued another document describing its vision for the future of the Eastside of Birmingham City Centre. This is one of the Five Areas of Transformation in the of the Big City Plan, which is a developing initiative.
The latest document is 40 pages long! It’s a very good document, though, with much more details than in previous ones. There’s lots of artists impressions and photos of current scenes – well worth a read!
This is a vision, and there will be consultations as the details develop. You can give your opinions and ideas:
Contact – Development Directorate, Birmingham City Council
E-mail: bigcityplan@birmingham.gov.uk
Call: 0121 303 4507
View the document.
Geoff Caine
A group of city partners, Centro, Birmingham City Council, National Express West Midlands, and the city centre’s four BIDs, launched a strategic plan – the Vision for Movement – a year ago in November 2010 to generate some ‘joined up’ thinking for getting around the city centre. On Wednesday morning, Nov 9, more than 100 key figures from the city’s business community attended the ‘Vision for Movement – One Year On’ briefing to hear how the last 12 months have seen high profile transport projects forge ahead. Two of your committee members were amongst this select gathering. Continue reading
The 4 year plan to convert Birmingham into a Connected City is getting more and more publicity. A new website http://www.connectedcity.org.uk/ is in operation and is being improved daily, so it’s worth paying return visits. This is really informative.
This is important and feed back on the ideas is needed to halp tailor the plans to what the people of Birmingham really want for their city and their personal needs. You can give your views via the above website by choosing More then Comment. Or click here to get to the form directly.
If you want more information or have questions do visit the Centro Exhibitions in Birmingham during the next month, starting on Saturday 26 March. For dates and locations see Dates for your diary.
Geoff Caine
An update on Birmingham’s Vision for Movement was given by key people at the Council House on Tuesday this week (22 March 2011). Read my account of this.
Please spare the time to read this – your future prosperity is at stake!
Birmingham City must be well connected with the outside world to grow and prosper.
Birmingham City Council and Centro are proposing to change how transport links operate in the City centre area. These will be major changes, happening in a couple of years. Consultation and action are starting in the course of this year and we should be prepared to respond, as necessary.
Centro are creating a dedicated website at www.centro.org.uk/connectedcity giving lots of information about the proposals. However, as it isn’t ready yet – 22 March 2011 – I have written this provisional report using Centro’s material. Continue reading
Library of Birmingham 'The Site' magazine winter edition
The Winter edition of The Site magazine about the Library of Birmingham development is now out. Carillion have sent us a copy. (Thanks!) You can read the .pdf version by clicking on the picture.
Since the last issue the two main lift/stair wells – core A and core B have been completed, showing the height of the building.
Also featured:
– Conservative Conference
– Site visits
– Apprentices
– Who’s Who
– What’s next
The soon to be 'deconstructed' Stevenson Tower by New Street Station
Forum committee member David Foster attended a progress briefing yesterday on the New Street station redevelopment.
One of the targets for end 2010 is to complete the ‘deconstruction’ of Stevenson Tower. ‘Demolition’ is a forbidden word for this activity – the building will be taken down piece by piece. There will be no wrecking ball or explosives used because its foundations are intimately bound up with the station structure.
The next platform to be closed off will be no. 12. Currently platform 1 is being rebuilt and should be opened during early 2011; thereafter platform 12 will be closed off. The platform refurbishment will proceed one-at-a-time.
Another target for end 2010 is to extend the access bridge at the Navigation Street end to cover the platforms not currently accessible to it.
Although the new station will have 8 entrances, it appears that in the minds of the station management the ‘main entrance’ for the new station will be that on the Station Street/Hill Street side. This will have long term implications for connections between Southside and the rest of the city centre, and also affect attitudes towards that area.
Birmingham Big City Plan and Vision for Movement Transport Strategy
The Birmingham City Centre Neighbourhood Forum is holding a public meeting, including Big City Plan consultation workshops, on 24th November 2010 at 6:45pm in the Museum and Art Gallery Learning Zone.
At the end there will be an opportunity for city centre residents who wish to get even more involved with improving our city centre life to stand for election to the Neighbourhood Forum committee at our short AGM. We need volunteers!
Our guest speakers are:
Councillor Tim Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transportation and Regeneration.
Gary Taylor, Chair of the Broad Street BID (Business Improvement District) and Joint Managing Director of Argent UK.
Richard Cowell, Big City Plan, Birmingham City Council.
Please come to the Great Charles Street entrance of the Museum and Art Gallery.
Read on for map, agenda, etc…
Will today, Thursday Nov 11 2010, prove a genuine milestone in the redevelopment of Birmingham City Centre?
Birmingham City Council has updated its Big City Plan and published information on the web site Birmingham Big City Plan web site.
A Masterplan document was published in September this year. You can watch a video, view the document on-line or download a copy on the site.
Also the Council is keen to have your comments on the plan and you can make these on the web site.
Worth a look!
Geoff Caine
You can read the latest news from the Big City Plan team in their Autumn 2009 newsletter.
Click on the BCP website link here to download it.
I have an invitation from the people planning the new Library of Birmingham to participate in designing how local residents and communities want to relate to this new building. Anyone interested in joining in, please read on . . Continue reading
The plans for the proposed olympic-sized swimming pool in Ladywood will open to the public today. They can be seen at an exhibition at the Nelson Primary School due to be launched today. Continue reading
Advance Notice!
There is to be a public meeting at Nelson School (on Summer Hill Street) on April 15 to hear about the the proposed Olympic swimming pool on the playing fields by the school. Continue reading
Last chance to comment on the Big City Plan at the bigcitytalk site, with its plain English translation of the Big City Plan and handy facility to comment below each section you want to. All comments will be packed up and sent to the council at midday Friday 6th.
Stop press!
The Creative Republic Big City Plan meeting was cancelled on Monday – some sort of problem with snow I believe!
It has been rescheduled from 6pm – 8.30pm on Wednesday 11th February 2009
The format remains the same with the event featuring a presentation on the Big City Plan with a discussion afterwards that will be written up as a formal submission to the consultation process.
Hurry! The official consultation period finishes 6th February!
Its your chance to tell our council how you would like to see the city develop in the years to come!
Monday 2nd February 2009
Are you associated with Creative Republic or make your living in the creative industries? Or are you a member of Birmingham Futures? If so, this meeting about the Big City Plan on Monday night could be the one for you…
http://www.creativerepublic.org.uk/node/398
Tuesday 3rd March 2009
Alternatively a representative from the City Centre Development Team will be present to discuss the Big City Plan at a Ladywood Constituency public meeting about it 3 March 2009 at 7pm at Ladywood Community and Health Centre, Ladywood.
The Birmingham Bloggers group have ‘translated’ the Big City Plan into Plain English, and enabled people to leave their comments against each section. www.bigcitytalk.org.uk . Even better – do both!
Walking around the city centre, you couldn’t fail to have seen posters about BIG CITY PLAN.
If you wondered what it was all about or, more likely, doubted that it had anything at all do with you, then think again!….
www.BrumCityCentre.com 