Table 7 - Black Country Hierarchy of Centres

Comment

Representation ID: 16367

Received: 25/11/2021

Respondent: Mr Malcolm Phillips

I feel that the Council should not build homes on the areas indicated on the leaflet provided. Wherever possible housing should be built as close to the city centres, I know this may be some high rise building.

By building more and more homes outside the inner city centre areas will only make the situation worse. Homes built in areas outside the town only leads to the death of the city centre (no M&S, BHS and possibly Debenhams) in the future means no need to go to Walsall. Also look at the death of the once thriving Walsall Market, all due to people preferring to travel to the out of town shopping centres, causing more longer journeys and pollution.

"Reconsider building more good homes, towards the city centre."

Support

Representation ID: 22592

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: MH No. 1 Limited Partnership and Ellandi

Agent: Williams Gallagher

I write in respect of the above public consultation regarding the emerging Black Country Plan (the ‘Plan’)
published for consultation between 16 August 2021 and 11 October 2021 and covering the four Black Country
Authorities of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

These representations have been prepared and submitted on behalf of MH No. 1 Limited and Ellandi in respect of Merry Hill Shopping Centre. MH No. 1
Limited are the owners of Merry Hill and Ellandi are the assets managers of the centre on behalf of the wners.

Ellandi was appointed as asset manager for Merry Hill in September 2020 and are currently leading a process of reinvigoration and re-positioning of the centre following the turbulent recent period in the retail sector. This includes a focus on Merry Hill shopping centre itself as the priority but also a wider strategic consideration of the additional land holdings around the centre.

Merry Hill Shopping Centre is situated within Brierley Hill Strategic Centre and accommodates over 200 stores and 150,000 sq. m of floorspace in addition to over 9,000 car parking spaces. The centre includes a dedicated bus station with almost 100 local and regional routes serving the centre and Merry Hill will soon benefit from access via the 11km Midland Metro line 2 extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill which is anticipated to open in 2023.

The wider area is anchored by the regional shopping centre with the area of ownership covered by these
representations also including a retail park, Odeon cinema and additional underutilised land around the
centre. Overall Merry Hill provides the largest agglomeration of floorspace within unified management in the West Midlands and includes key retailers such as M&S, Next, Boots, TK Maxx, H&M, Sports Direct / Flannels, Primark, Superdrug, JD Sports and Asda. As a result of this, Merry Hill provides thousands of jobs and is of fundamental importance to the Black Country’s economy.

The Plan retains Merry Hill’s inclusion as part of the Brierley Hill Strategic Centre. This is strongly supported
as it recognises the crucial role Merry Hill plays in the sub-regional economy and will help to facilitate the
continued regeneration and improvement of the centre and wider Strategic Centre of which it forms a part.

The overall approach of the Plan is to direct new residential and employment development across the Black Country to support the existing centres and to contribute to their regeneration rather than in supporting
new centres. The Plan recognises that recent changes in the retail sector have led to an oversupply of retail
floorspace therefore the shopping and service needs of existing and future residents can be met by the
existing centre hierarchy. Furthermore, the Plan recognises that in certain circumstances, there may need to be a reduction in retail floorspace in some centres and a shift in concentration on retail uses to ensure they
remain viable.

This approach is strongly supported as it represents a realistic reflection of the challenges faced by the
retail sector and provides the best opportunity to deliver the regeneration and continued health of the Black
Country’s centres. Notwithstanding this, it is recommended that this approach is strengthened and that the Plan makes it clear that its focus is that appropriate investment should be directed to the Strategic Centres in the first instance in accordance with the centre hierarchy.

Aligned to this, there should also be a more explicit recognition within the Plan of the need for flexibility in
respect of the range of uses within the Strategic Centres. This would reflect the dynamic nature of the retail
market where fast paced change through disruptive processes requires responsive policies and planning
decisions that allow centres to benefit from this pace of change. The Strategic Centres are the key drivers
of the Black Country economy and it is crucial that they are able to quickly adapt and respond to ever
quicker market changes. Planning policies at the sub-regional and local level should therefore include in-built
flexibility recognising that the pace of updating Development Plan policies to respond to market changes can often be undertaken quick enough to keep up with this fast-paced change. This approach would be
consistent with Paragraph 82 of the National Planning Policy Framework which requires that planning
policies should:
“d) be flexible enough to accommodate needs not anticipated in the plan, allow for new and flexible working
practices, and to enable a rapid response to changes in economic circumstances.”

Leading on from this, the Plan suggests that the existing Area Action Plans (AAPs) for the Strategic Centres
will be subject to review following the adoption of the Black Country Plan to reflect the updated
development targets and strategic objectives of the Plan. Whilst there is obviously a need for additional policy at the local level to supplement the strategic policies of the Black Country Plan, it is not considered that an updated Area Action Plan is the best mechanism to provide this for Brierley Hill and the other Strategic Centres.

As noted above, the current nature of the market for retail and other town centre uses is changing at an
unprecedented pace. It is unlikely that Development Plan policy is able to be prepared and updated fast enough to remain relevant in this context. It is therefore considered that there are planning policy mechanisms that would be more efficient and responsive than an AAP in helping to shape the future regeneration of Brierley Hill Strategic Centre. This could more appropriately include either a Supplementary Planning Document or Development Framework that would help to guide future development but could be produced much quicker and therefore be more flexible than an updated AAP forming part of the
Development Plan.

To put this into the context of the current AAP, Policy 20 envisages a large scale extension to Merry Hill to
provide an additional 56,500 sq. m of comparison goods floorspace. The plan was adopted in August 2011
following work commencing on the plan in 2006. Over this five year period the global financial crisis occurred
and the development encouraged by Policy 20 was extremely unlikely to be delivered and therefore
arguably already out-of-date at the point of adoption.

Following the global financial crisis, the retail and leisure markets then saw an increase in the development of
large format foodstores with demand for these subsequently declining and supermarket operators
subsequently closing stores. Following this, there has been increases and subsidence in demand for chain
restaurant casual dining and more recently following the Covid-19 pandemic, uncertainty regarding the way
in which people may continue to work more flexibly and increasingly from home part of the time and the
impact this could have on the demand for and the characteristics of office floorspace. This highlights the
speed at which priorities in the retail and leisure markets can change and as a result of this, the difficulty
planning policy has in keeping up with these changes.

As a result of the above and the even more recent acceleration in the rate at which the retail market is
changing it is not considered that an updated AAP is necessarily the best option for provision of more
locational specific guidance below the strategic level of the Black Country Plan. This is due to the length of
time it will take to produce an update to the Strategic Centre AAPs and the likelihood that following this, it
will not be possible for the plans to remain sufficiently up to date.

To resolve this issue, the Black Country Plan should include the suggested option that each Local Authority
could either update the AAP for each Strategic Centre or produce Supplementary Planning Documents
(SPDs) or Development Frameworks to provide local guidance for the Strategic Centres. This will allow for
the more efficient production of relevant policy and in turn allow it to more quickly adapt to any future
trends in the retail and leisure sectors.

The Plan should also make clear that either of these options should be sufficiently flexible and proactive (as
it is considered the policies within the Black Country Plan are) to support the evolution and regeneration of the Strategic Centres without the need for more prescriptive policies that could become out-of-date quickly.

Policy TRAN1 of the Plan covers priorities for the development of the transport network and sets out a
range of specific improvements that are intended to be delivered over the plan period including the
extension of the Midland Metro network from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill. These improvements are
supported to increase accessibility across the Black Country to boost economic activity and increase the
proportion of journeys made by sustainable transport modes.

Policy CSP5 relates to Cultural Facilities and the Visitor Economy and seeks to protect, enhance and expand
such facilities in the Black Country. This aspiration is strongly supported to increase the attractiveness of the
Black Country as a visitor destination building on its distinct character, history and many other strengths. It is
recommended that this policy is adjusted however to specifically note that where such cultural and visitor
facilities are town centre uses, they will be subject to the sequential test.

Paragraph 4.11 includes a list of infrastructure investment required to support development including public
open space, transport provision, school places, health facilities, affordable housing, sustainable drainage
systems, wastewater treatment, and waste management facilities. It is considered that town centre and
public realm improvements be added to this list to help facilitate the regeneration of centres and where
required provide mitigation for out-of-centre proposals.

Policy ENV4 relates to the provision, retention and protection of trees, woodlands and hedgerows. Whilst
the policy is positive in that it intends to increase the provision of trees across the Black Country, clause 13
requires that new developments should make a minimum contribution of 20% canopy cover across the
development site. It should be noted that this will be sought ‘where practical’ reflecting the reality that some
development sites will not practically be able to achieve this aspiration on site.

I trust the above will be taken into account in the progression of the Plan to the next stage. As noted, overall it is considered that the Plan is positive and realistic in its future aspirations for supporting development in the Black Country and subject to the changes identified above will be a sound basis for the future growth of the sub-region. Please contact me on the details provided if there are any questions or if any further information is required.