Hammerson’s Oldbury scheme set for green light from planners
PLANNERS have been recommended to approve proposals for a new mixed-use retail development in Sandwell that could generate millions of pounds of investment and create hundreds of new jobs.
Councillors on Sandwell’s planning committee have be told they can give the green light to the scheme for the old Hunt Brothers Griffin Foundry, off Bromford Road, Oldbury subject to a series of conditions.
The proposals have been submitted by Hammerson, part-owner of Birmingham’s Grand Central shopping centre.
The scheme includes three associated food and drink units, a 555-space customer car park, a new signal controlled junction to Bromford Road, alongside various public realm improvement works, servicing, soft landscaping, and enhanced pedestrian links.
No retailers are yet attached to the scheme but the applicant is experienced in the development of such retail parks with similar examples elsewhere in the UK.
The application, submitted on behalf of Hammerson (Oldbury) Ltd, will do much to improve the urban landscape of Oldbury, which has been synonymous with industrial decline.
The scheme consists of:
• The construction of food and non-food retail floor space arranged in a sub-divisible terrace;
• The construction of a standalone discount foodstore;
• The construction of a semi-detached restaurant unit;
• The construction of a single drive-through hot food and beverage take away unit;
• On-site associated car and cycle parking, trolley bays, service areas and landscaping;
• Off-site enabling infrastructure including a new signal-controlled junction on Bromford Road, and improvements to the junction of Bromford Road and Fountain Lane;
• The construction of a new service vehicle only access off Fountain Lane;
• The integration of pedestrian and cycle access within the scheme.
The site, now vacant, was previously the home of Hunt Brothers Griffin Foundry which was demolished in 2003 to make way for a larger retail and leisure development, including a multi-screen cinema, which never came to fruition.
A report to today’s planning committee states that while the site will provide undoubted employment opportunities it is not to the same scale as the scheme proposed a decade ago.
“It is considered that the scheme would only be supported on the basis that the whole scheme was delivered and a condition to secure this is recommended,” it states.
It adds: “It is accepted that the site has been vacant for over 10 years and the positive benefits for regenerating this area of Oldbury should be given significant weight in supporting development of the site.”
It said there remained an opportunity to seek further leisure use within the undeveloped portion of the site.
