Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Dec 98/Jan 99

Up the Pole

Bassetts Pole that is! We have long argued that the REAL reason for the BNRR is not about solving the traffic problems on the M6 BUT creating a new corridor of development in the West Midlands Green Belt.

Cannock and Lichfield District Councils have earmarked various acres of land for development adjacent to the road. One of which, ironically, is called the Orbital Business Park. Birmingham has its eyes on future opportunities and on 30th November at Joint Strategy Committee agreed to spend £30,000 on a consultants report for a 50 hectare premium industrial development at Bassets Pole North Birmingham. We have been here before. Since May of 1998 to be precise when the land was identified in the Strategic Guidance for the West Midlands. It has since been endorsed by successive SoS's in regional planning guidance in 1995 and May of this year. It was also adopted as developable land in the Unitary Development Plan of 1993.

Bassetts Pole is located at the junction of the Sutton Coldfield bypass and the Tamworth Road. The land in question is 300 hectares on the City side of the A38 including some land in the administrative area of Lichfield District Council. The BNRR surprisingly enough passes right through the middle of the land identified in the search. There is a junction with the A38 and the BNRR to the South of the identified land. The land at present is all in the Green Belt and one of the remits of the evaluation is to identify only 50 hectares of the identified site and the other 250 hectares will then remain as Green Belt land. So that is OK then!! So what is proposed is a comprehensive survey and appraisal of the land and the identification of options for a premium industrial site of up to 50 hectares. This will be followed by a full public consultation on the options and the production of a development brief. If and when a planning application is submitted this will be subject to a full Environmental Impact Assessment. So the robustness of the planning system to protect our natural environment is as strong as it ever was..!!

This report will be doing the rounds of various committees within the council during December and arriving at the Sutton ward committees on 15th January 1999. So watch this space for more information on this and other developments along the route of the proposed BNRR.

Sally Fletcher