Changes to food court plans
Ambitious plans for a new £24 million food court at a Black Country shopping centre are to be expanded before going to planners again.
Original proposals for an 18-kiosk eating hub with restaurants and balconies looking over a courtyard at Dudley's Merry Hill Shopping Centre were agreed last July.
But centre owner Westfield has now made changes, adding another restaurant and making changes to its service roads plan.
The redesigned food court will be built behind Debenhams and will seat 1,400 people, if approved.
But bosses at Westfield, which owns the shopping mall, have not yet set a date for the start of work on the plans which have been in the pipeline for more than a year.
The outside entrance to the food court will be flanked by balcony-fronted two-storey restaurants, with shoppers also able to get to the complex via the inside of the centre.
The main food court will hold the 18 kiosks arranged around a covered space with some seating spilling into a large outside courtyard.
Five conditions have been attached to the development, including the submission of a landscaping plan, improved pedestrian crossings and safe access strategies for traffic.
Councillors unanimously backed the plans last year and have been recommended to approve the revised plans at a meeting on February 26.
It will be a similar design to the Jules Verne restaurant which closed in the 1990s and was located in the area now occupied by TK Maxx.
The restaurant had a huge balloon as its centrepiece and offered a "round the world" eating experience, with shoppers able to choose from English, Italian, Indian, American and more.
Over the last four years Westfield – the world's largest retail landlord – has been working with Brierley Hill Regeneration Partnership and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council to set out an award-winning master plan, which will see £1 billion of investment opportunities throughout the town.