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Campaigns/Planning | Become a Golden Supporter |
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Campaigns/Planning | Become a Golden Supporter |
As you may be aware there are plans to bring the National Football Stadium to the West Midlands Green Belt. These were launched officially on Friday 31st August by Birmingham and Solihull Councils in both Birmingham and London. A report has been prepared by Patrick Carter detailing the choices on offer for the siting of the National Football Stadium. At present there are three contenders Birmingham, Coventry and Wembley. The latter two are brownfield developments while the Birmingham bid is for a Green Belt site on the eastern side of the M42 motorway in what is locally known as the Meriden Gap.
West Midlands Friends of the Earth is urging people from all over the country to defend the principle of Green Belt. The Meriden Gap is under threat not only from a soccer ground but also a Motorway Service Area, ever increasing housing demands, business parks, a technology triangle, the widening of the M42, an ever expanding airport and leisure facilities. Once the eastern side of the M42 is breached the developers will declare open season on the Meriden Gap and the inevitable coalescence of Coventry and the West Midlands will commence. It is essential that we defend the Green Belt of the West Midlands. We welcome the work to bring the stadium to the City but deplore the choice of a Green Belt site. West Midlands Friends of the Earth objects to the siting of a national Stadium on a Green Belt site within Solihull Metropolitan Borough, West Midlands.
Our objections can be summarised as follows:
Green Belt
The issue of the Green Belt
in the West Midlands has been the subject of many battles between developers,
local authorities and environmentalists for many years. The Green Belt has done
its job in stopping urban sprawl and the coalescence of the conurbation and
its surrounding towns. A down side of this success has been the increased distance
which people are prepared to commute into the conurbation in the search for
a perceived increase in their quality of life. This has resulted in the Midlands
motorways filling up with local commuting traffic hindering the passage of long
distance commercial traffic.
The line of the Green Belt has consistently being moved outwards, indeed in the current review of the Birmingham Plan areas such as Peddimore and Bassets Pole are proposed to be removed from the Green Belt to allow industrial development to take place. The issue of the Green Belt was a highly charged debate at the inquiry into the current UDP for the City when it was described as "easily defendable" by the inspector. No sooner was this agreed that Birmingham tried to attract development into that easily defendable Green Belt. This was to provide a micro-electronics plant on a site known as Peddimore on the eastern side of the A38, near Walmley, Sutton Coldfield. A public inquiry was held in which the Inspector recommended that the Peddimore site should not be developed BUT the Secretary of State John Prescott thought otherwise and decided that development, of a certain nature, could take place on the Peddimore site. The world market slump for micro-electronics has resulted in no formal application coming forward to the City.
The site upon which the proposed National Stadium is within a triangle formed by the A452,A45 and M42 within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. This site was also put forward by the City as a location for the new national stadium in the last round in 1996 and as a site for the Millennium Dome in 1997. It is in the Solihull Green Belt as adopted by the Solihull UDP (1998). The site is owned in part by Birmingham City Council, Solihull MBC and private individual/s. This designation of Green Belt has been hard won by environmental campaigners in a democratic manner by appearing at a public inquiry and arguing the case for Green Belt in front of a government inspector. This particular line of Green Belt is within an area known locally as the Meriden Gap. This precious piece of land is an important green lung between the conurbation and Coventry. The M42 is essentially the barrier of the Green Belt and any development on the eastern side of the M42 will declare open season on the Green Belt not only of the West Midlands but the principle of Green Belt across England as a whole.
Fast-track planning
The timescale as set out on
31st August and in the Brochure and on the National Stadium web site www.thenationalstadium.net/main.asp
is very worrying. The team including both councils and developers Arup are working
to a tight timescale which will see a planning application submitted in October
2001. This will be determined by Solihull Council leading to a public inquiry
in February 2002 with a positive decision by June 2002 allowing development
to commence in 2003 and the FA Cup final of 2006 heralding the official opening.
A review of the planning system is underway launched by Stephen Byres on July 26th 2001 with a view to shortening the timescale that large controversial planning applications can take. The frustrations of the Terminal 5 Heathrow timescale has frustrated the developers and they are lobbying for a fast track process. We are arguing for the right of third parties to have an enhanced role within the planning process not to hinder it but to add value to it. The timescale with which we will have to react to this application is extremely worrying and could herald the ability of local people to engage with the planning process being eroded. This case could have significant implications for third parties allover the UK.
It is interesting the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the National Stadium site is the responsibility of Arup who are a partner in this proposal. This lack of independence on the EIA is another worry for third parties and local residents.
Jobs
The National Stadium is estimated
at creating 4,300 jobs. Under tough questioning and amazement at this figure
from Solihull councillors on 4th September, Katherine Kerswell Chief Executive
of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) said they would be 4,300 full
time equivalent jobs. West Midlands Friends of the Earth have written to Solihull
MBC for clarification on this. We fully understand that a large number of construction
jobs would be created but once open a significantly smaller number would be
employed on the maintenance side. Indeed, the maintenance would probably fall
under the maintenance remit of the NEC.
There would also be new jobs for groundsmen but the majority of jobs at the proposed Stadium would be part time on match days such as programme sellers, food and drink providers and stewards. A number of these may indeed not be new jobs but extra work for people already on the NEC payroll. We are extremely worried that these jobs are generated from a tourism job computer model which is used to estimate the economic activity generated as a result of a particular development. These jobs already exist and would not be directly attributed to the National Stadium.
Given its location and car accessibility there is a high likelihood that supporters would not reside in the West Midlands for very long, nor would they create the same sort of economic activity as, say, an event at the International Convention Centre (ICC). The tourism model may well be flawed for this development. A site closer to the City centre with little car parking provision may be more likely to attract people for, say the weekend and thus increase the economic benefit to the City and region.
We don't need a new National
Stadium now
Wembley has been shut for
over a year now. The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, is performing a suitable alternative
for cup finals and play offs. This despite the poor travel arrangements for
the Worthington Cup final endured by fans from the West Midlands. Indeed some
fans are now actually going to Cardiff and taking a weekend break, using public
transport and staying in the City. A stadium in Birmingham City centre would
be ideal for this sort of activity.
Players and fans alike within England are enjoying English fixtures in the English regions. So far matches have been in the West Midlands, the East Midlands, the North East and even London. This could carry on. The increased capacity of English Stadia provides an excellent atmosphere and shares the matches around England. In the capital both Chelsea and Arsenal will have around 50 000 seat capacity stadia in the near future. There are grounds of this size and larger outside the capital. Indeed if a larger capacity is required the home of Rugby Union, Twickenham could host a crowd of 75 000 if required and have softened in their approach to football, Evening Standard 11th September 2001. Both Wales and the Republic of Ireland share their rugby and football international venues.
England have lost the hosting of the 2006 World Cup. The next time a World Cup will be hosted in Europe will at the earliest be 2018 on the assumption that 2010 is in Africa and 2014 is in the Americas. This would leave 2018 between Asia and Europe. England should plan NOW for that World Cup. That does not mean building a new National Stadium now but planning for one. The planning is more important that the building. We need to assess what the requirements of hosting a World Cup will entail. We need to meet those requirements and we need to plan NOW. Birmingham and the West Midlands will be an integral part of those plans with maybe Villa Park and the new National Stadium in the City centre at their heart.
This will allow the Birmingham to set aside the land required for a non car based, green, national stadium in the heart of the City. The compulsory purchase mechanisms, if any are needed, can be initiated so as the land assembly can commence. This would enable England to compile a bid of the highest standards using club grounds from the length and breadth of the Country and a National Stadium in the heart of Birmingham at the heart of the Country. If it is not possible or economically attractive to set aside an area of land for a National Stadium in the City Centre then we should investigate other possibilities within the Region. This would obviously include the current Coventry bid which could herald massive regeneration in the North West of this City. It would also bring forward transport investments creating the regions second cross city commuter line connecting Nuneaton with Leamington and or Stratford via Coventry.
Transport
The idea that the NEC east
of the M42 site is ideally placed at the heart of the transportation infrastructure
is a joke. The bid is predicated by the actual ground being surrounded by 7,000
car park spaces and 500 coach spaces plus a further 21,000 car park spaces.
The proposed stadium capacity of 85,000 would be met by this provision without
all of the cars or coaches being full. Thus no one would have to travel by any
other mode than road. The provision of any form of fixed rail link heavy or
light would not be fiscally possible. The creation of the walkway and air rail
link would make the journey feasible by rail but the attractiveness of the site
for cars would probably swing the choice of journey. There is also a missing
link in access to the site by rail from the North East. At present Birmingham
International is not accessed directly by trains from the North East.
Virgin trains have suggested reopening a stretch of track between Blythe End and the West Coast Mainline near Hampton-in-Arden thus allowing trains from the North East to pass through Birmingham International en route to the City Centre and the South. This could also prove controversial in the locality and was certainly referred to within the presentation by Arup to Solihull MBC on 4th September 2001.
The bid is also predicated by the widening of the M42 and the opening of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road. The widening of the M42 may well be a recommendation of the West Midlands Multi Modal study but will take a number of years to complete. It will also affect the Green Belt and will lead to more traffic on an already overburdened part of the road network. The stadium is adjacent to two huge traffic generators the NEC and the Birmingham International Airport. The prospect of this section of the road network grinding to a halt even after all of this road investment is a nightmare and will take away valuable resources which could have been spent to benefit everyone in the region on public transportation infrastructure thus creating an alternative to the car resulting in more space on the road network for those who have to use one.
The Birmingham Northern Relief Road is to be the UK's first toll-boothed motorway and there is no evidence from supporters that they would be prepared to pay to use the BNRR to access the National Stadium. So indicating that the presence of the BNRR will allow traffic to flow around this location is flawed.
In summary
The National Stadium should
not be built on green belt land. It should not be a huge traffic generator.
It should be built as the keystone of a World Cup bid for say 2018. When built
it should be of the highest environmental credentials. These will change with
time but it is essential that it is a world leader in every aspect of its design
and operation. Birmingham has assembled an excellent team for this project it
is such a shame that it is the right City, the right Region, but the wrong location.
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