Regeneration – yet more delays
A newsletter has been released by Birmingham City Council in regard to the delay in releasing the draft masterplan for the project. The word “delay” is not mentioned anywhere in the communication, however they refer to needing “additional time” – quite why isn’t clear.
You can see the newsletter at Latest news on the Masterplan | Ladywood regeneration newsletter.
The letter talks about 3 types of regeneration:
- Category 1 is to retain and refresh, as it’s name suggests
- Category 2 is refurbish and reinforce, some building on undeveloped land can occur here
- Category 3 is redevelop and renew. No mention of “demolish” which is what this means, and displacement would occur – no details how this would be avoided
We have constantly asked for open, honest communications, yet the Council can’t even say the word ‘demolish’ where it applies. There is also a claim of the Resident and Community Charter being “committed to minimising disruption and demolition”.
This, however, could be meaningless, as the Charter has no legal or other weight behind it, and the developer, St Joseph, thinks that the Steering Committee is “merely a focus group”.
The team at Ladywood Unite recently wrote about the issues around the Steering Group – Ladywood Resident Steering Group: residents outvoted, silenced and sidelined – Ladywood Unite.
There are reminders in the newsletter of meetings you can attend, however when attending, residents often find that the answers are “we don’t know” or “we haven’t got that yet”, so we all wonder why we attend!
Questions remain, and the Liberal Democrats, both locally through Lee and Zoobia, and with our Lib Dem Councillor colleagues, are continuing to press the Council and Developer for answers and clarity for all residents, faith leaders and congregations, and businesses.
Please do contact us if you have any further information or would like to discuss any local issues.