Merry Hill target big-name store
Merry Hill Centre bosses are keen to attract a big name department store, planning chiefs revealed, as they gave their backing to more shops being added to the complex. Merry Hill Centre bosses are keen to attract a big name department store, planning chiefs revealed, as they gave their backing to more shops being added to the complex. They backed the idea of Brierley Hill, where the centre is, becoming the new 'capital' of Dudley in the Black Country Regional Spatial Survey's report. Drawing on evidence to a nine-day public inquiry, the 72-page report is a blueprint for how planning chiefs believe the four Black Country boroughs should develop over the next two decades and beyond. Read the full story in the Express & Star.
They backed the idea of Brierley Hill, where the centre is, becoming the new 'capital' of Dudley in the Black Country Regional Spatial Survey's report.
Drawing on evidence to a nine-day public inquiry, the 72-page report is a blueprint for how planning chiefs believe the four Black Country boroughs should develop over the next two decades and beyond.
In his report for communities and local government secretary of state Ruth Kelly, panel chairman, Alan Richardson, said the case for switching focus from Dudley town centre to the Brierley Hill, Merry Hill, and The Waterfront triangle was a "recognition of reality".
There was a strong argument for the whole area to be known simply as Brierley Hill, he said. The fact it had so many office jobs and was the West Midlands' second-biggest shopping destination spoke for themselves.
"We find that there is a compelling case for transforming Brierley Hill/Merry Hill into a strategic town centre," he said. "This is an essential signal of the positive intention to create a new strategic town centre."
Improvements to public transport – including building the Midland Metro spur from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill – would be required, as would the introduction of parking charges in the area "comparable" with those in Walsall, Wolverhampton, and West Bromwich.
The report also backed adding 51,000 square metres of shopping space – equivalent to about one third of the size of the current Merry Hill Centre, over the next 14 years.
It says bosses Westfield are keen to attract a major department store which would need 50,000 square metres separate from other little-by-little expansion.
The report concludes that attracting a major department store ought to be considered favourably and "not founder on the basis of an arbitrary limit".
Mr Richardson said that once Brierley Hill met all the planning, transport and parking requirements to be a major town centre, different rules about expanding the number and size of shops would apply. The plan for Brierley Hill calls for better integration between High Street, the Waterfront and Merry Hill to grow "carefully" into a main centre.
