A renewed focus on the future on the whole of the Birmingham Road Site development plan is needed, the chair of a task group on the issue has said.
Lichfield District Council put forward proposals for the land previously earmarked for Friarsgate last year.
It outlined how different phases of the scheme would progress along with the creation of a timeline covering a five year period.
But with work due to to start on the demolition of the multi-storey car park and land where Tempest Ford once stood now being offered up to housing developers, Cllr Colin Ball has called for a renewed focus on the overall plans.
The chair of the city centre masterplan task group told a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee:
“One of the biggest things I want us to be doing is having a task group in May or early June which will look in detail at the site overall.
“I’ve been in communication with the leader and cabinet member about a meeting as it is worth waiting to get the relevant people there to tie down what is going to happen on the site overall, when things will happen, what the cost will be etc.
“I’m increasingly concerned that this is developing in a piecemeal and ad-hoc way and we don’t have a complete overview. There was one, but we seem to have drifted away from it.”
Cllr Colin Ball
Fellow task group member Cllr Paul Ray said he too was keen to see the bigger picture explored.
“In the last council, we had a presentation from the project manager and it was exciting with the vision laid out. But that has got lost.
“The task group needs to have that so we can see the overall vision, because our role isn’t to project manage, but to scrutinise and advise on the vision.”
Cllr Paul Ray
Cllr Ball said he also hoped to see the focus return to the whole city centre rather than just the Birmingham Road Site in future.
The council drew up an overall masterplan a number of years ago, with the document envisaging the creation of four distinct quarters.
Cathedral Quarter, Market Quarter, Business and Learning Quarter, and Southern Gateway Quarter were designed to help shape the long term future of the city centre area.
Cllr Ball said that while he recognised the immediate aims of starting work on the former Friarsgate land, he wanted to see attention switched to wider redevelopment plans.
“We are a city centre masterplan task group – but it’s becoming a Birmingham Road Site task group as that’s the focus in the moment.
“In a year or 18 months we need to look at the whole of the city centre again to scope out the future plans.
“The role of the task group is to shape policy and approach as well as testing and questioning rather than just rubber-stamping aspects of it as we go through – that’s what I want us to get to.”
Cllr Colin Ball
