A £4.5 million development bringing a hotel, exhibition centre and shops to Dudley would create 140 new jobs – but could undermine the £500 million scheme to transform the town, it is claimed.
The five-acre Mullins Yard site linked to Dudley Zoo and the Black Country Living Museum would be transformed under the proposals.
Plans for a £10 million revamp of Dudley Zoo sprawling out towards Mullins Yard are already in place although work has not yet started.
The latest project has split opinion, with zoo board chairman Councillor David Sparks claiming the new development could suck investment from the overhaul of Dudley town centre.
However Ian Walden, chief executive of the Black Country Living Museum, believes the Mullins Yard scheme could reignite the stalled zoo proposals.
The Mullins Yard development would feature a 120 bed hotel, pub restaurant, shopping centre and an exhibition centre for Royal Brierley Crystal.
It would sit alongside the proposed zoo and castle project, which has been in the pipeline for the past seven years, including a spectacular 20-metre rainforest dome and the creation of a dinosaur exhibition.
Mr Walden claimed the new scheme could resurrect the zoo revamp, which has hit problems with developer St Modwen seemingly uneasy about committing to such an outlay in the midst of the credit crunch.
But Councillor Sparks today said the Mullins Yard development should be rejected. “What’s needed is either for the St Modwen proposal to go ahead or for us to incorporate the Castle Hill plans into the redevelopment of Dudley town centre,” he said. “We must not kill the town centre.”
Developer Portexcept is behind the Mullins Yard plans, which have been submitted to Dudley Council.
7 Comments
Why not let some bloke in Bristol decide what happens? Seems they know whats best for Dudley down there apparantly!
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dudley town centre is already dead i think that should be priority before building shops out of town
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if they dont want to kill the town centre tell me why you will soon be having a mosque there ,if the plans dont kill it the mosque will!!!!!!!!!!
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The £500 million revamp of Dudley town centre? Have I missed something? All I have seen is a bit of airey-fairy talk of creating a “world class” tourism hub, a few flats and removing the town’s strategic centre status so it can expand the wretched Merry Hill centre. Oh, and then there is the scheme to turn the town into one big college campus.
While this plan is nowhere near enough, it is better than anything that the council has come up with.
The only real future for the town is through major retail expansion, though, and this can only be achieved by strangling the Merry Hill centre.
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Tividale born &
Living in the USA and not having seen the new Public building in real life-
How about getting the people who were involved who worked on the Public in West Brom that should cap off a great project.
Tie in the Mosque (you could see it from the top of the Castle)& you can see the castle from the Mosque towers and hey presto-
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number 1 to true
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St Modwen’s should get on & develop this Zoo Project. I think a old tram link between the Black Country Museum & the Zoo, would benefit both enterprises & boost tourism in Dudley. It could also include something for Brierley Crystal.
Forget Hotels they are being built, what seems everywhere. As for shops, why donb’ the council invest in the town & encourage new shop owners into the town by offering them referbished shops.
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