Walmley Residents Association

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Dear Members

I attended a meeting yesterday evening to discuss the Peddimore development. Present were our Ward Councillors (who arranged the meeting), several Town Councillors plus representatives from local community groups. The City Council’s appointed developer for the first phase of Peddimore (the western half, next to the A38 Sutton Bypass) is I.M. Properties and their Planning Director (David Smith) plus consultants gave an overview of their company, their aspirations for this development and initial construction proposals. Of key interest to residents were the following:-

1. IMP will be responsible for constructing the new roundabout on the A38 Sutton Bypass as an initial phase of the development. This roundabout, to be built on one level (not grade separated), will be the sole access to Peddimore and the main access to Langley (see later comments). The roundabout site occurs within a deep cutting, with steep banks up to both the Peddimore and Langley development sites; major earthworks will therefore be required.

2. The Peddimore development will require major earthworks as an initial phase to create plateaus upon which buildings will be constructed.

3. Initial construction traffic, including large earthmoving plant, will gain access via Walmley Ash Lane (ie. behind B&M, Asda and Wickes) until the roundabout is completed and open to traffic.

4. The major earthworks operations will be mainly self-contained within the site by applying a balanced “cut to fill” system – excavated material from “high” areas will be used to raise the level of “low” areas of the site. This means that there will be no need for convoys of lorries taking material off-site. There should be no need for frequent off-site journeys for the large earthmoving plant; once it is brought to site, it will remain for the duration.

5. The final layout, size and appearance of the new buildings will be market-led, ie. much will depend on which End-users are attracted to the site.

6. The southern end of Wishaw Lane will be “stopped-up”, ie. extinguished, since it will lie within the Peddimore site.

7. Major landscaping works are included in the scheme to provide screening to existing residential areas, to increase biodiversity and to reduce visual impact. This will include evergreen planting along the southern boundary (houses), deciduous native species along the north and east boundaries and “green” community facilities at the eastern end of the site.

8. An Environmental Impact Assessment is in preparation – the scope of which is currently being discussed with B’ham Planners.

9. In terms of timescale, IMP anticipate that an initial Planning Application will be submitted in Autumn 2018 and, if this is determined within the statutory period (Spring 2019), construction would commence during Summer 2019 and be completed in Summer 2021. They promised to have further consultations with councillors and resident groups before the initial Planning Application is lodged.

 

All of the above features were then discussed, subject to the tabled proposals being at an early stage of design – detailed discussions to follow as the detailed design progresses. Transportation was a particular concern, as follows:-

• The phased construction of the new roundabout on the A38 – minimising disruption to existing traffic on a heavily congested main feeder road.

• Could the new roundabout be constructed to accommodate existing and development-generated traffic (Peddimore and Langley) and, even is so, would traffic then back-up from Minworth Island (which we believe is grossly under-designed for future traffic)?

• How would the new access “fit into” the existing highway network in terms of capacity and congestion?

• Is the current proposal for a single point of access (a new roundabout onto the A38) sufficient and safe?

• What are the anticipated employment figures, where are most employees likely to live hence their travel routes to the site, what “car reducing” plans will be introduced (car sharing, cycling facilities, bus services)

IMP advised that, at present, they were relying on B’ham CC’s traffic model which was published as part of the B’ham Development Plan; they were now carrying out further studies to check and “refine” that traffic model. Detailed proposals would be submitted as the overall scheme design is progressed during Summer 2018. B’ham CC had published speculative data for the number of future employees, travel routes, etc. but IMP could not confirm or refine these details at present; a Travel Plan would be prepared once the initial End-users had been identified. IMP were made aware of councillors’ and residents’ concerns regarding the provision of a second access from the development site – none is currently envisaged. All present at the meeting offered their organisations’ backing for the inclusion of a second point of vehicular access, bypassing Minworth. Minworth’s resident representative was particularly robust in identifying the chronic lack of public transport facilities and other amenities currently available to Minworth residents plus the effects of current traffic along the Kingsbury Road towards the M42 motorway. IMP noted all of these concerns and promised to revert to us with answers before the initial Planning Application was lodged.

I will ask that IMP’s current literature regarding their company and their outline proposals/philosophies for Peddimore is made available at Walmley Library.

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Best wishes,

David.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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