The Big City Plan – update

Consultation on the Big City Plan Work in Progress report was carried out from the 12th December 2008 to the 6th February 2009. All of the responses from this consultation have been analysed and the information that has been collected will be used to inform future work on the Big City Plan.
The Big City Plan was intended to be a single plan for the City Centre but as the work has progressed it has become apparent that it should be more than just a single document. The Big City Plan is intended to stimulate a continued debate about the future of the City Centre from which ideas, policies, projects and developments will emerge. On this basis the Council will now be producing a number of different documents, building on the work to date and the results of the consultation, which will all contribute to shaping the future of the City Centre.
The Council will be producing the Big City Plan City Centre Prospectus. This document will take the ideas and projects that are emerging and apply them to the areas within the City Centre. The target is to have a well developed draft of this document complete by the end of 2009.
The Council is also currently producing its Core Strategy, a statutory planning document, which will set out the approach to how Birmingham will develop over the next 15 years. To reflect the importance of the City Centre a specific City Centre chapter will be included in the Core Strategy. This work will provide the key policies for the City Centre. This may in the future be supplemented by detailed guidance and site specific policies for the City Centre in the form of other Big City Plan titled documents including Supplementary Planning Documents and site specific Area Action Plans.
The aim will be to produce a draft Core Strategy, which includes the City Centre specific chapter, toward the end of 2009 and further public consultation will follow.
We will keep you updated with news and progress.

A new year for a big city with a big plan…

On Monday I received a copy of the Big City Plan ‘Work in Progress’ public consultation document The purpose of the report is to seek the views of the public on the issues that will affect development of the city centre over the next 20 years.

The Big City Plan team has spent the last few months identifying these issues and defining options for how Birmingham could look, feel and function in the future.

As young professionals, most of us work in the city centre, the majority of us use it for the base of our entertainment, socialising and shopping, and a significant number of us live within the area covered by the Big City Plan. It is therefore vital that these key stakeholders get the opportunity to ‘have their say’.