MORE than 100 homes could be built on land in Lichfield as part of a city centre regeneration project.
Lichfield District Council will discuss the plans to sell off the former Tempest Ford site on the corner of Birmingham Road and St John Street at a meeting on Tuesday (15th October).
The land was originally purchased by the local authority as part of the failed Friarsgate retail scheme.
But new redevelopment plans for the plot – which now forms part of the rebranded Birmingham Road Site – will see housing built instead.
A report from Cllr Andy Smith, deputy leader and cabinet member for leisure, parks and major projects, said:
“The proposal from the purchaser of this land is for a high-quality residential development, of approximately 100-112 homes, to be brought forward on the site.
“Strong interest was received in the site with 65 parties registering to download the sales information.
“A shortlist of three proposals were created. These three met the value and quality criteria set and presented schemes with designs that were most likely to achieve planning permission, albeit there was a wide gap in terms of the quality of design proposed.
“All three bidders were invited to present their proposals to the council, to enable further discussion and challenge of their designs.
“CB Collier was identified as the preferred bidder. Their proposal is for an extremely high-quality design scheme.
“Since 1997, they have successfully developed a portfolio of 5,000 residential plots, with £60million of additional employment land, 1.5million sq ft of commercial office space and 750,000 sq ft of care provision.”
Cllr Smith’s report said CB Collier had put forward an “exciting housing development” for the gateway site.
It would see a number of one to four bedroom apartments built, along with three bed townhouses.
The development is also proposing to create the majority of car parking for the new homes underground.
“The proposed development is designed to minimise the impact on St John’s, with an open plan view onto St John Street and a large open space area, giving both an open park area and high specification apartments that meet the required Birmingham Road Site design code and the aspirational living that we want to see on the site.
“Along the boundary of the Birmingham Road the development increases in height to take advantage of the existing architecture alongside St John Street.
“The site will also include a total of 146 parking spaces, provided through a mix of 31 above ground spaces and 115 below ground spaces, offering an innovative solution to city centre residential parking, whilst also ensuring open spaces are in abundance within the development and ensuring that parking will not add any additional pressure to existing city centre parking.”
The money from the sale of the land will be split into three areas – £1.7million as part of a deal to bring food and drink outlet The Botanist to the new Everyman cinema development, £2million for public realm projects on the Birmingham Road Site and £1.2million for investment in Burntwood.
All this council do is nothing short of stupid. In what way will this ease the pressures on nearby Drs other public services ect . Bringing in more houses is nothing short of a joke . Businesses that were promised never turned up.
Why do we need more new homes ? Lichfield is becoming over saturated. We have no infrastructure in place to accommodate more housing, most of the shops are charity shops and the lack of good quality retailers means that people have to travel out of the city to buy. This means that the money people are earning is not coming back in to the community.
The site has been Empty now for a number of years and this is the best you can come up with …. Very short sighted and disappointing.
How creative are LDC? been empty many years – lots of options dismissed inc leisure centre, swimming pool for all to use in central easy to access location. More small houses apartments, is so creative.
Please excuse sarcasm
So this is the Gateway to the City. WHAT A JOKE.
LDC should hang their heads in shame.
What are Public Realm Projects.?
Can Anyone outhere explain please.
So selling out for 4.9 million.
Not so much for 7 years of nowt.
Grrrrr.
Absolutely disgusted by this. I was a friend of the owner of Brian, the owner of Tempest Ford. He was DEVASTATED, when he was asked to vacate the site. His company did so much good for Lichfield (We Love Lichfield, sponsor of The Garrick, Lichfield Business Forum, Cathedral Sponsor), and now looks what has happened a literally YEARS after throwing his business from the site.
The council we have is, sadly, an absolute shambles, and Mike Wilcox should be made to answer to the for mess he made, and our money he squandered (not to mention the lost revenue from lost business rates)
It’s corporate negligence.
Great idea top quality development is fantastic very much needed in Lichfield the income from the council tax great ring it on asap
How on earth can you fit 100+ houses in that space? They’ll just be little boxes with no gardens! & of course they’ll all have to go and register in our already over-loaded doctors so we existing residents will have to wait even longer or not at all for an appointment!! Why is it no one seems to think of this? Or do they think we’re robots??? I despair!
So more housing in the middle of the city next to a cinema which is a dieing form of entertainment, more food outlets and bars ,where are the quality shops the ones that are suddenly missing it all part of the plan to drive all business under and will suddenly want to build a out of cityshopping village with the bus station and parking and be able to redevolop the excess ting shops into new unit s with luxury apartments above
140 parking spaces for 100 homes of which most will have 2 cars, so more houses with not enough parking and no extra Dr’s, schools of even a 24hr hospital, and a bus service that is a joke.
People were right, all they would build is flats, with the other two area’s, that could be over 300 flats
I wouldn’t like living in them, with electric cars being charged in the under ground car park, be like living on a time bomb.
Will they have to dig the resurfaced rood up for new assess, to parking.
Will they be affordable with plot costing £50,000.
With all the consultations unbelievable what we’ve ended up with
If LDC think the houses will end up looking like the artist’s impression, I’ve got some magic beans to sell them. The developers will promise the world and then once they own the site, the “it’s not economic” excuses will begin.
I wonder how many of the housing will be retirement flats like most of the housing being built within the city centre recently ?
So, they are paying 1.7 million just to get a posh eatery and the whole of Burntwood only gets 1.2 million to cover the whole town !!! Something stinks !!! Showing that Burntwood is yet again the poor relation.
How the hell are they going to fit one hundred new homes on this plot of land? Lichfield hasn’t got the infrastructure to cope with this amount. They are going to be tiny
Although this plot of land is a developers dream, it sits on a major road junction, with lights. Cars are going to be trapped into this area, the waiting traffic at the lights are going to cause this.
This seems another half baked idea, from a half baked Lichfield District Council.
Level the whole area off, lawn it, and in the borders plant some flowers, or perhaps a couple of trees.
The Lichfield District Council should be acting for the greater good and the long term credibility of the city. Since Friasgate they have discovered that there is no effective opposition to their plans and they can act with relative impunity. Far too many changes have been made in the last decade or so and they have had a negative impact on the living conditions of its inhabitants. There is no accountability.
I, among many others, have posted many times on the proposals for the Friasgate site. We have not made a jot of difference to the outcome. It seems senseless to continue such a fruitless pursuit. Reason will not prevail. Short of a vote of no confidence for this council, nothing will.
Disgusting council tax-fee generating measure on a plot of land forced early from a garage. No-one wants new homes, the overwhelming suggestion was to use a green space as an architectural welcome to Lichfield, instead with have this 21st century, overcrowded monstrosity with no parking to the detriment of St John’s Street and historic Lichfield. Shame on you all.
The old ford site and bus station are a completely missed opportunity for development, could have used it for mixed use retail and leisure use.
You know so some of the units you’ve demolished could be replaced, just a thought 🤔
If the images are to be believed, it appears LSc are at least staying with traditional bespoke build and in keeping with the surrounding buildings?
However Lichfield doesn’t need further housing developments, it’s at saturation point and Without the required infrastructure it will create further issues for the people of Lichfield
Hang on Steve C, this is the sale of a Lichfield asset. I question why Burntwood should get anything at all. Imagine if a big asset in Burntwood was sold and Lichfield received over £1m of the sale proceeds, there would be uproar that it wasn’t all being reinvested in Burntwood. This is Lichfield subsidising Burntwood. God the entitlement…
Could translates as probably never.
If that is the corner of John street and Birmingham road the I think the artist missed the constant lines of traffic off their impression. Although maybe the roads are peaceful in the future as everyone is in the cinema that will be built any day now!
I’ve said quite a few times on LL, surely a green space (lawns, paths, benches, planting, trees etc.) could have been implemented quickly and cost effectively.
Numerous others have pointed out the same.
Is this idea so odd, and so niche that maybe it deserves little or no consideration?
Are the council planning on making the whole of the city pedestrianised? Do they want us to walk, cycle or use public transport only. No traffic lights or cars on view and the cyclists appear to lack any safety gear.
LDC is selling this prime city centre site far too cheaply to developers who will make an absolute killing. The money it receives will barely cover the cost already incurred in demolishing the multi-storey car park, the police station and the Tempest Ford garage, not to mention the lost revenues, especially after handing £1.7m back to developers for the fancy food outlet. Meanwhile the city is losing valuable assets in the form of the multi-storey (already gone) and the much used bus station. Under this plan it will lose all public parking remaining on the site, putting the future of the Garrick (and, ironically, the planned new cinema) at risk. This is not what Lichfield needs or what Lichfield wants. Keep the bus station, use part of the site for the new leisure centre, and build a new public car park. By the way, what’s happened to the traffic lights in this artist’s impression, or are they just another eyesore to be airbrushed out?
It’s quite funny to read the comments saying Lichfield doesn’t have the infrastructure for all these new home owners…. Funny because we just voted in a Labour MP and government who is committed to build millions of new home and we are complaining as soon as the first ones turn up. You get what you vote for folks and Angie Raynor’s diggers are heating your way.