We have listened to our community and are concerned that the proposed development by Alumno of a 167-bed
student residential building will have a net negative impact on our neighbourhood. We will therefore be, as a Forum, opposing the planning application on the grounds of potential negative impacts.
The planning application is now available on the Birmingham City Council website where you can find details and where you can comment, object or support. The deadline for public consultation is 31st of December
To view the planning application, where you will find links to 'View Associated Documents' and 'Submit Comments' click here
To make a comment or to support or oppose the application click here
Our full statement
As the Forum's Management Committee we have engaged with the developers and their agents whilst their plans for the site were prepared for submission. We were open and honest in our concerns. We have also tried to listen to the views within our neighbourhood. We did this formally with a survey (we received 71 responses - c. 10% of our areas households), but also informally by talking to our neighbours and friends. We have monitored social media and spoken to our counterparts in adjacent areas. The results of this process has led us, as a Forum Management Committee, to the stance that although we welcome development of the former BT Exchange portion of the site, we feel that there are still unresolved issues with the planning application. These concerns revolve around the impact on parking and traffic, and concerns regarding reduced community cohesion given the current mix of families and more transient residents. Furthermore, we feel that its suggested use as a purpose built student accommodation may have a negative impact on our area by attracting further investment in student and other transient housing. We feel that this will create imbalance in our community. Moreover, we also feel that the proposed development is not inline with Birmingham City Councils Student Housing Policy and query if it meets in delivering the principles of sustainable neighbourhoods - a wide choice of housing sizes, types and tenures will be provided to meet community needs including homes for families (BDP 3.23) and whether it meets TP30- meeting local need.
The results of our consultations and the conclusions we drew from them can be found in the attached document
Comments