Birmingham City Council adopted The Big City Plan on July 25^th 2011. Unfortunately, for the Wholesale Markets, it falls bang in the middle, and therefore will be removed to make way for a moat. (Yes, you heard, get rid of access to cheap, but good quality, fruit and veg in a time of economic hardship to reclaim an ancient moat.) I have nothing against reclaiming local heritage, but if it puts other heritage at risk I find it a bit hard to swallow. Below is the vision of what the current site could look like – I can’t see a stall in sight.

Vision of what the site could look like

The Wholesale Market has been in dialogue with Birmingham City Council for years for a redevelopment of that area and relocation of the Wholesale Markets out of the city centre. Now, the traders are told that the market must move, but there is no funding available for this to be Council-sponsored. The traders have nowhere to move to, and no money to move, even if there were somewhere to go. The planned date for this to happen by Summer 2013.

Traders from the Wholesale market are now applying to take Birmingham City Council to Judicial Review, with the support of traders from the Bull Ring Open Market. Our aim is similar, for the Wholesale Market to remain in the city centre. For us it is vitally important if we are to keep our prices low and offer an important service to Birmingham people.

We have gained a lot of public support over the past five months and have almost 40,000 signatures on our petition. The Birmingham Mail has supported our campaign wholeheartedly, as have public figures: Carl Chinn, Glynn Purnell and, more recently, David Bailey, who has written some brilliant articles for the Birmingham Post explaining the impact the closure could have on Birmingham’s economy.

The Birmingham Markets make Birmingham unique; they are a product of over eight generations of trading people, carving a bit of public space into a vibrant community, with something for all the people who live within this city.

I, for one, would not like to see it disappear.

You can read more on our blog and please let your local councillor know how important the markets are to you.

Stirchley has, for some time, been a little neglected, suffering like other small shopping areas, from the seemingly unstoppable drift to the big supermarkets and the larger retail centres with their national chain stores. A lack of significant investment from the City Council hasn’t helped either.

 Many local residents, like myself, are quite content with the one existing Co-op superstore backed up by a range of small high street shops, such as the popular local greengrocer. The area has also been boosted in recent times by the arrival of the innovative and vibrant Stirchley Community Market, with the exciting addition of a Community Bakery opening very soon.

(Photograph by Greensnapper http://www.greensnapperphotography.com/)

Large areas off the lower High Street have been left derelict for many years, with the land held by rival supermarket Tesco, who are waiting to build their own supermarket virtually opposite the existing Co-op. The City Council has recently given Tesco planning permission to build their store, leading to the loss of the indoor bowls centre and the inevitable closure of the Co-op.

 So now with Asda planning its own supermarket at the back of the upper High Street, off Fordhouse Lane, we could have two huge new supermarkets.

So what is the problem – won’t this revive the area?

No, far from it, the precedent tends to be that big supermarkets undermine small retailers, often forcing them out of business and weakening the local supply chain, further reducing local employment. Research has shown that spending in local shops can generate up to four times as much to the local economy, compared to any national chain. And the threat is not only to Stirchley, but also to other retail centres including Cotteridge, Kings Norton Green and Kings Heath.

An already congested Pershore Road will become virtually gridlocked with the additional traffic created by the two new supermarkets.

Additionally, FOE has long been concerned about the way leading supermarkets treat suppliers, particularly farmers in Britain and globally; seemingly focused, as they are, on cheapness at all costs.

 At the time of writing we are awaiting the outcome of the planning enquiry, which closed on July 7th, and there will have been a further meeting of the local campaign against the Asda plan on July 19^th.

 To find out more visit the Super Stirchley website at: superstirchley.wordpress.com