Ladywood, please click on the picture to go to a larger version

Ladywood is very close to the main city centre, has it’s own canals and could be a very desirable place to live.

At the moment though Ladywood needs significant improvement.  The quality of the houses, shops and public facilities vary significantly. The overall design is based on out of date ideas. The place is inward-looking,  hard to navigate and can make people feel insecure.

The Council owns most of the housing and has been making gradual improvements.   The two to three storey homes are low density, which means more people could live on this land, and they look too suburban for somewhere so close to the city centre.  There are also a few high-rise council towers.

The newest development is of privately owned 9-10 storey buildings beside the canal. These apartments turn their backs on the rest of the Ladywood estate and make it harder for the people who live there to reach the canal.

We think this area presents a great opportunity to create a successful neighbourhood with a strong community focus but it will mean major change. The quality of the housing can be improved significantly, as can the way we use the open space. The canal can then be used to its full potential and we can improve the way the neighbourhood connects to the National Indoor Arena area and the core of the city centre.

Some work is already happening.  A new high quality residential development of four to seven storeys is already taking place along Ryland Street.  The Icknield Port Loop area immediately to the west of Ladywood is being developed into a new neighbourhood which will makes the most of the old industrial canal loop.  There will be a mixture of styles of homes, some owned by the people who live in them, others rented by private landlords of housing associations.  At the moment it is cut off from the city centre by the ring road, canal and railway .  The Big City Plan is a chance to investigate how those barriers can be removed. This would  create a number of routes through Icknield Port Loop, Ladywood and on to the city centre, effectively merging the two neighbourhoods.

So we belive that if we bring together housing, planning and education policy and projects within Ladywood we can create a neighbourhood which works well for the people who live there.