Birmingham city council will not mount a legal challenge to HS2’s decision to safeguard a 150-acre site for a train maintenance depot.
Speaking at Estates Gazette’s Midlands Question Time event in the city on Friday, Mark Barrow, strategic director of development, said the council would rather work towards a compromise through negotiations with HS2 Ltd than go to court. The authority is campaigning for the depot to be built on part of the site in Washwood Heath or in a completely different location. The site is regarded as Birmingham’s prime next-generation logistics area. But last month HS2 Ltd confirmed that it wants to reserve the whole of the site, which would wipe out a third of the city’s available employment land.
HS2’s proposals are now out for consultation and the council has until June 2013 to respond.
Barrow said: “We are trying to understand what parts of the site can be released over time and the economic impact of this. We are hoping there will be some middle ground that we can agree on. This is a very important strategic site and we want what’s best for it and what’s best for Birmingham. We’re big supporters of HS2. “
Local market observers are warning that if the depot does go ahead as planned, it could cause delays in bringing new land forward for development, with the focus shifting to recycling existing industrial sites elsewhere. As a result, occupiers might look elsewhere, exacerbating high unemployment levels in Birmingham.
Earlier this year Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham city council, spoke exclusively to Estates Gazette about the site. He said: “That land has potential for 6,000 jobs. We cannot hang around until 2026 for it to be a train maintenance works for HS2. We want to see HS2, we want a depot near to Birmingham, but equally there is some urgency in creating jobs in a city with 13% average unemployment – significantly higher than most other parts of the country.”
The UK’s planning system is “fundamentally flawed” says Real Estate Investors’ chief executive Paul Bassi.
As one of four panellists at the annual Estates Gazette Question Time event, Bassi said: “We ought to have professional committees, instead we have unqualified individuals making decisions.”
Fellow panelist, Savills director Barry Allen, added that he thought planning was “struggling to come out of a dark place.” He said: “We have still got to get used to the changes in national regulations and applications are still too expensive.”
Mark Barrow, strategic director at the local authority, responded that the council was in the top quartile in terms of performance and quality.
However, Bassi slammed the council saying: “It’s not good enough to be the best of a bad bunch.”
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
