A planning report has warned that Friarsgate is crucial to ensuring Lichfield is able to compete with other towns and cities across the Midlands.
The comments were made as part of a report into proposed changes to the planned multi-storey car park.
The document – which recommends backing the alterations – says that the city needs to ensure it can “compete as a strategic centre within the West Midlands”.
“The scheme [Friarsgate] has a lengthy history of evolution,” the report states. “Over that time the basic principle of the scheme has not altered, but the composition of uses and various levels of detail have clearly been informed by various studies and consultation.
“However, at the heart of the issue is the clear need for Lichfield to compete as a strategic centre within the West Midlands.
“In coming years, adjacent centres are proposed to expand further and unless Lichfield competes equally, the current trade retention could reduce further, thus damaging the existing retailers and businesses of the city.
“The current scheme is of a scale that will allow Lichfield to retain a more commensurate level of its trade, as well as providing much needed facilities such as leisure, cinema and gym, required to serve the local population – a population that is expanding and which expects to meet its basic needs within the city, rather than having to visit neighbouring centres.”
The comments follow those of Lichfield District Council leader Mike Wilcox, who admitted to LichfieldLive last week that “a challenging retail market” had been to blame for delays to the long-awaited project.
Much of the city centre redevelopment scheme has been clouded in secrecy in recent months, with a number of meetings to discuss it held behind closed doors.
A council report had originally hoped construction would start in 2017 – a target that came and went, despite test bore holes being drilled.
But the latest planning changes to the car park facility will offer some glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.
The original proposal had been for entrances and exits to the new facility to be on both Frog Lane and Birmingham Road.
But a new proposal has suggested Frog Lane should not be used as an exit, while the Birmingham Road exit would now comprise of two lanes instead of one.
Internal changes are also being proposed, including the use of separate up and down rather than shared ramps. The changes would mean the overall capacity of the car park would drop from 505 to 497.
The report will be discussed at a meeting of Lichfield District Council’s planning committee on April 9.
