Policy CEN2: Hierarchy of Centres

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Object

Black Country Core Strategy Issue and Option Report

Representation ID: 128

Received: 05/09/2017

Respondent: Mr Mark Andrews

Representation Summary:

Dudley is one of the Black Country's four main town centres.
The Merry Hill centre does not form part of Brierley Hill town centre.
The short questionnaire includes a loaded question about whether retail development should be concentrated on the 'main town centres', without explaining how these have been redefined. The consultation process is therefore flawed.

Full text:

By any reasonable definition, the largest town centre in Dudley borough is Dudley itself. In a cynical attempt to circumvented national planning policy, the council moved the signs for Brierley Hill town centre by almost a mile in order to include the Merry Hill out of town shopping centre.
Brierley Hill remains a small town centre, which has simply had its boundaries gerrymandered to suit the wishes of the council.
I am fairly confident that if an independent survey of people of the Black Country were carried out asking them to name the four main town centres of the Black Country, then Dudley would feature among them, and Brierley Hill would not.
And it is also my belief that many people who will have answered the question "should retail growth be concentrated in the main town centres?" in your short survey will have done so in the belief that they were supporting regeneration of Dudley town centre rather than the expansion of the Merry Hill out-of-town shopping centre.