Plain English Version
The inner and outer ring roads (the Queensway and the Middleway) made Birmingham easy to get around by car, but not so much by bus, train, walking or cycling. Some of the Queensway has been removed or changed, but to encourage walking, cycling and public transport more needs to be done. This might include better pedestrian crossings, more and better signs or removal of things that get in the way.
Original Document
Birmingham transformed itself in the 1950s and 1960s from a traditional city of streets into the “motor city”. A new inner road, later named “Queensway”, was built, forming a tight concrete collar around the city’s core. Major investment took place to create new or widened radials such as the Aston Expressway and Digbeth High Street. The ring road, “Middleway” was constructed further out as a route around the wider centre. The urban design consequences of these major transport investments have already been described. Whilst the concrete collar has partly been dismantled, enough of it remains – as part of the A38 corridor – to act as a significant barrier to movement within the city centre. At the same time the expectation of easy access into the centre by motor vehicle remains as a legacy of this era.
Plain English Version
A million people live in Birmingham, and if you include surrounding towns and cities nearly two and a half million people live nearby. Birmingham is Britain’s second biggest city, and is also big when compared to most cities in Europe. The average age of the people of Birmingham is young when compared to other towns, and also contains people of a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. The population is also growing. So far, we think the regeneration of the city centre has been a success and it has attracted a lot of money into the city.
We would say that Birmingham has:
- new high technology manufacturing
- a fast growing amount of professional services, and other business
- good universities, and researchers
- conference facilities comparable to the best in the World
We think Birmingham should aim to:
- attract more investment from abroad
- be better known internationally
- be an exciting and attractive place
- to be know for it’s great public spaces
- be known as a “Water City”
This report is to help us produce what we call ‘The Big City Plan” – which is a plan for the future of Birmingham’s City Centre. When we say City Centre we mean the area within the Ring Road (the Middleway) inside the pink line on this map. This is 8 square kilometres or 3.09 square miles.
The plan will show what we wish for Birmingham over the next 20 years.
The city centre is not just shops and offices, but everything that the area covers:
- homes
- businesses
- universities, schools and colleges
- culture
- and everything else.
The plan will aim to help Birmingham continue to be successfully and get better and better known in the UK and abroad. It will aim to make sure all development fits together sensibly, and the city centre becomes a more attactive place to live.
The Big City Plan will be part of what is called the Local Development Framework (or LDF) — a collection of documents that describe how a city is planned. The LDF will also include a plan for the whole of the city.
The plan has to match national government plans, Regional Spatial Strategy and with the Birmingham Plan. The Regional Spatial Strategy says that Birmingham needs 50,600 new homes by 2026, 1.3 square kilometres (0.502 square miles) of places people work (growing up to 3.9 square kilometres or 1.51 square miles) and 225,000 square metres of shops by 2021 (355,000 sq m by 2026) and also 590,000 square metres of offices in the city centre.
There is already a report called Birmingham 2026 which sets out some aims for Birmingham in the year 2026, and a three year plan called the Birmingham Local Area Agreement — the Big City Plan will have to work with these.
Some work has already been done to get the Big City Plan into this shape, but it’s now time for everyone to tell us their opinions. After this it will be turned in to a final version which you will again have chance to see and talk about. It will then be passed to the Government. If all this goes well, Birmingham will be able to start work on the plan later this year.
Original Document
Birmingham is a city of a million people at the centre of a conurbation of two and a half million. Birmingham is Britain’s second city and is big on the European scale. It has a young, diverse and growing population. In the face of massive economic change, the city has achieved great regeneration success and has attracted large amounts of inward investment, with more to come. It has new high technology manufacturing, a rapidly growing business and professional services sector, a strong university and research sector, and world-class business conference and exhibition facilities. It wants to attract more high value international investment, and register much more strongly on the international scale. It wants to be an exciting and attractive place where individuals and families choose to live and stay. It wants to be a place renowned for great public spaces and as a ‘Water City.’
This Issues and Options Report is a stage in the development of The Big City Plan, a plan for Birmingham’s city centre. The city centre is the area within the Ring Road (Middleway), and covers some 800 hectares. The Big City Plan will develop the new vision for the city centre and set a new direction for the city centre over the next 20 years. The city’s aspiration is to be in the top 20 most liveable cities in the world within 20 years. The Big City Plan will be an important instrument in realising that ambition.
The city centre is not only the core area of shops, offices and hotels, but all the myriad activities that take place within Birmingham’s quarters – its homes, start up businesses, universities and educational establishments, cultural scenes, specialist services, creative industries – in fact, everything within the area bounded by the Ring Road. The plan will build upon Birmingham’s success and will ensure that the city raises its performance and its profile nationally and internationally. It will provide a coherent approach to regeneration and development and will help to make the city centre a much more attractive and liveable place.
The Big City Plan will form part of the Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF will be made up of a portfolio of documents including Area Action Plans and Supplementary Planning Documents, and will be an important means through which to deliver our vision for Birmingham’s city centre. Also in the LDF will be a new Birmingham Plan, which will be the core strategy for the whole city. It has not yet been decided what type of document the Big City Plan will become.
The Big City Plan has to be consistent with national policy guidance, the Regional Spatial Strategy and with the Birmingham Plan. The Regional Spatial Strategy sets out some important requirements for Birmingham: 50,600 new homes by 2026 over the city; a 130 hectare city-wide reservoir of employment land with a longer term requirement of 390 hectares; and 225,000 square metres of comparison retail development by 2021 (355,000 sq m by 2026) and 590,000 square metres of office development in the city centre.
The Big City Plan takes forward our shared vision for the future of the city (Birmingham 2026) – helping to deliver our five key outcomes that Birmingham people succeed economically, stay safe, are healthy, have a high quality of life and can make a positive contribution. Birmingham 2026, and our three-year implementation plan (the Birmingham Local Area Agreement) can be found at: http://www.bebirmingham.org.uk/2026/
Work on the Big City Plan is being carried out in several stages. We have been undertaking research for some months to gather information to ensure that the proposals and policies which emerge later in the process are grounded in robust, up to date information. We are now at the issues and options consultation stage where everyone interested in the future of the city centre has the opportunity to get involved. In the next stage we will produce a preferred options report which will be subject to formal consultation for 6 weeks. After that we will produce a draft plan which will be submitted to the Secretary of State for examination. We hope to formally adopt the Big City Plan in 2009.