For those wishing to see the proposals for the Brierley Hill town conservation area then plase click this link:
http://www.dudley.gov.uk/environment–planning/planning/historic-environment/conservation-areas/brierley-hill-high-street-conservation-area The management proposals are in part B of the link
Moves by the new coalition government to axe Regional Spatial Strategies will NOT stop plans to bring major new building projects for Brierley Hill according to Dudley Council’s Senior Planning Policy Officer Annette Roberts.
Proposals to increase the size of the Merry Hill Centre, create over 2000 new homes and bring offices and 10,000 jobs to the area had been embeded in the West Midlands Spatial Strategy – a planning document which guides development throughout the region.
But the new government feels that Spatial Strategies are too bureacratic and restrictive for local councils and have announced plans to abolish them. This has raised some concerns about the future of regeneration in Brierley Hill, the borough’s strategic centre.
Speaking to a meeting of Brierley Hill Town Centre Partnership Annette explained that although the regional strategy will disappear, all of the evidence which underpinned it – including the high priority to create new jobs and homes in the area – remains valid and retains the support of the four councils in the Black Country. The councils have produced a ‘Joint Core Strategy’ which sets out how they plan to work together to regenerate the area. The Joint Core Strategy is due to go to an examination in public in July and includes the designation of Brierley Hill as a strategic centre (together with the tests required to be passed before further major retail exapansion can take place).
Long awaited improvements to Brierley Hill High Street, funded from the Brierley Hill Sustainable Access Network scheme (which brought Venture Way to the town), are moving ahead.
The scheme will involve the widening of pavements to create parking bays, new Puffin Crossings and a new bus stop on the Western Side of the High Street (opposite the library).
Final consultations to take place shortly.
Although it seems a long way off preparations are in hand for the Christmas lights in Brierley Hill High Street.
Previous years have seen problems with the lights being extinguished as mains leads were polled out. Now four new mains points are being installed to prevent a repetition of the trouble. Christmas lights suppliers have also visited the area to draw up an action plan to improve the display this year. Many of the lights are to be refurbished and a bid for funding for new festoon lighting is being drawn up.
Stourbridge College has revealed the plans for its new £11 million state of the art Creative Industries Centre in Brierley Hill. At a presentation to Brierley Hill Civic Society, Vice Principal Andy Sylvester told the meeting that the Centre, due to open in September 2011 will bring 600 full time students to the heart of the town. Courses offered will include: fine art, weaving, fashion design, sculpture, graphic design and 3D design. Continue reading See the new plans for Brierley Hill Campus
” Cafe Plus ” – a new coffee bar and convenience store in the new Brierley Hill Health and Social Care LIFT building on Venture Way will be opening on 1st June.
The cafe will be offering freshly made sandwiches, baguettes and jacket potatoes, with a huge choice of toppings. It will also include a quality state of the art bean to cup coffee machine. There will also be a convenience store section selling all those essentials for people to grab whilst out and about.
Jon Skelding from Scallywags play centres commented:
“We are due to start fit out this week and plan to open for June 1st and will be creating at least six new jobs for local people. The Health and Social Care Centre is due to open to the public on June 14th We have further plans to roll out the brand to other locations over the next 18 months.”
The LIFT building will host around 350 staff and 500 patients a day.
Tuesday saw local residents being given their chance to have a say on parking issues in Brierley Hill town centre when the Community Forum’s open meeting met at Bank Street Methodist Church. Those attending the meeting heard that the introduction of car park charging at Merry Hill was, for legal reasons, some time off. But there are exisiting parking problems in the town which needed to be tackled. Continue reading Community Forum open meeting discusses car parking and transport
Around 20 traders, agents and stakeholders in Brierley Hill Town Centre had their chance to express their views on their town at a workshop in the town organised by Dudley Council.
Key themes which were identified by the workshop included the need for improved transport and parking, better safety and more investment in the area. Continue reading Stakeholders identify key issues for town
Members of Brierley Hill Town Centre Partnership burst into applause at the conclusion of a presentation by Elaine Giles, Vice Principal of Stourbridge College, on the latest proposal to build a campus in the centre of Brierley Hill.
The scheme had appeared to have hit the rocks last year fiasco a national funding fiasco from the Learning and Skills Council.
However, dogged determination by the Stourbridge College team has meant that a proposal to build phase one of the scheme has been resurrected.
Chairman of Brierley Hill Town Centre Traders and vice chairman of the Partnership Shane Birch-Bastock commented:
“This scheme is hugely important for the economic future of Brierley Hill.
“It will bring a thousand students to the town centre every day – that has to be good for local traders.
“The new educational facilities will also help to regenerate the area by driving up achievement amongst younger people and the partnership were very impressed with the quality of the design”.
The Partnership unanimously agreed to write a letter of support to the Dudley planners when the detailed plan for the facility is submitted in March.
Stourbridge College, which is also investing in its Hagley Road, Stourbridge, site, aims to have the centre ready for use by September 2011.
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Partners behind Brierley Hill’s new health and social care centre scooped their fourth award in December when Dudley Future Skills awarded it the “Partnership of the Year” accolade at an awards ceremony at the Savoy Centre, Netherton.
Dudley Infracare Lift Ltd, Carillion Planned Maintenance, NHS Dudley and Dudley Council have been working together to build the new £27 million health and social care centre on Venture Way, Brierley Hill. The project has been supported by a £5 million grant from Advantaged West Midlands.
On track to open in May this year, the state of the art centre will provide integrated services for three GP practices consisting of 10 GPs serving 14,000 patients, three dental surgeries, audiology, chiropody and leg ulcer services together with providing a new home for local council social services staff.
The award celebrated the work that the partnership has done to get local unemployed residents into work.
John Coyne, Chief Executive of Dudley Infracare LIFT said:
“19 unemployed people have already been trained up and launched new careers in construction so far. We are delighted to have won this award which follows recognition as the Black Country regeneration project of the year in 2008 and the national best LIFT regeneration award in 2009.”
Councillor Les Jones, Dudley Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said:
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into getting people into work, and equipping people with the right skills to do that.
“These awards celebrate the excellent work that goes on in this borough and it is important to reward the successes of the people involved.”