Birmingham City Council has submitted a bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF) to enable long deliberated plans for improvements to Northfield town centre to move forward.
The £11.4 million bid is one of five submitted by the city, worth just over £82million.
The council has already been successful in bidding for three projects within the first round of funding from the Government – A457 Dudley Road Improvements, Moseley Road Baths & Balsall Heath Library, and the remediation of the former Birmingham Wheels Site (Bordesley Park).
The new bids align with the council’s Levelling Up Strategy and the key LUF criteria set out by the Government.
The Northfield bid was put together by BCC following historic public consultations and consultations with Northfield MP Gary Sambrook (Cons) and Northfield BID.
The funding would enable regeneration plans — Northfield Regeneration Framework (2014) and the city’s Urban Centres Framework (2020) — to be implemented.
The project would provide improved public spaces, services and amenities and develop the transport network in line with sustainable travel plans.
The proposed remodelling of Northfield Shopping Centre would provide a more welcoming frontage and create a more open access through to Victoria Common, improving the flow and connectivity in the town centre.
The measures would include:
- the demolition of Prices Square to create improved public realm and a diverse range of facilities;
- improved public realm and pedestrian and cycle infrastructure at Victoria Common;
- improved public realm to increase footfall in the town centre;
- schools streets measures to improve public realm and encourage sustainable travel;
- junction improvements on the A38;
- improved bus priority, traffic reduction, cycling infrastructure and mobility hubs.
Other bids submitted include:
- £20 million for the regeneration of housing and facilities in Druids Heath;
- £20 million for a National Centre for Decarbonisation of Heat, focusing on the delivery of low-carbon and low-energy heating solutions in Birmingham and the West Midlands;
- £20 million to fund a range of new community and cultural facilities in the area around Edgbaston Stadium — addressing health and wellbeing challenges, new learning and training hubs to boost employment, and enhanced public realm and accessibility via new walking and cycling routes to address inactivity;
- £10.75 million for improvements to Erdington high street.
Birmingham City Council Leader Cllr Ian Ward said: “I am delighted that Birmingham City Council will be putting forward these five ambitious projects to the Levelling Up Fund. If successful, they will deliver true change to communities across Birmingham, helping to improve the lives of our residents for decades to come.”
Cllr Brigid Jones, Deputy Leader, added: “We are determined to tackle the structural inequalities that continue to hold too many people back in Birmingham. With 42 per cent of our children growing up in relative poverty, and a 10-year gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods, we know that radical action is needed. These LUF bids can help to bring prosperity to our communities, improving life chances and restoring pride to our neighbourhoods.”
The full Cabinet report on the LUF bids is available on the council’s website.
Children in poverty you say, while Labour councillors from this area are lording it up at the multi-million pound opening of the Commonwealth Games.
Anything for the rest of B31 around Allens Cross for example? What’s happened to the new councillor for the area, I wouldn’t mind betting he was lording at the Commonwealth Games opening when his voters are worried about how they’re going to pay the electric bill. Fly tipping is another problem lately not being dealt with, what’s Jack Deakin doing about that, the council could knock the price of bulk collections back, but then the councillor wouldn’t know there’s an issue, he’s never here to see it.
Thank you, Aladdin, for pointing out what everybody else experiences – altering the layout of Northfield will do nothing to put food on the table, eradicate fuel poverty, ease air pollution or deal with Houses in Multiple occupation. Precisely how would the proposed demolition of Prices Square alter residents’ lives in the future? This is merely yet another dose of roadworks for which there is apparently a bottomless pit of money as opposed to the above subjects where funds are, er, limited.
As for Councillor accountability, we have the same problem in Longbridge where Councillors are elected but refuse to answer e-mails asking for help with dangerous road traffic conditions during (permanent) construction works and, of course, permanent road works which effectively trap residents in their own houses, plus the derelict King George V pub and piles of refuse outside the Bristol Road flats. ‘Local democracy’ now exists only in cyberspace because it has become impossible for residents to get any improvements done.
Hope to hear from you