The £100m extension of Chelsfield’s massive Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley is expected to be blocked by the Government in an announcement due tomorrow.
According to the local Birmingham Post, the Government is believed to have sided with the planning inspector’s conclusions at the public inquiry which said the extension went against planning guidance restricting out-of-town development. Chelsfield had claimed that the Merry Hill development had become a town-centre in its own right.
A DoE spokesman told EGi that the official decision would be made public by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, head of the new-look transport and environment superministry, tomorrow. The decision to turn down the scheme, which 18 local councils and other public bodies had fought against, is backed by the new Government’s green approach, and its desire to limit car use.
Gerald Kells of West Midlands Friends of the Earth told the local Birmingham Post: “It [Merry Hill] was a deliberate attempt to encourage people to travel further from places like Walsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham to shop. It was aimed to generate extra traffic and congestion in the West Midlands and as such contradicted everything the Government has said about transport and environmental policy and it was contrary to all sane planning guidance.”
Chelsfield was unavailable for comment.
EGi News 03/07/97
