Plans to redevelop site in Birmingham's famous Jewellery Quarter given green light despite concerns

Developers were seeking permission to demolish a number of existing industrial buildings at land near Hockley Hill to provide new apartments.

Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox with the Express & Star’s free newsletter

The scheme is set to comprise five and six-storey blocks featuring 269 apartments in total, as well as commercial space.

175 Hockley Hill, a Grade II listed building which sits in the southern corner of the site, will be retained and converted into a main entrance, with shared amenity space and two apartments above.

But at a council planning meeting last month, one Birmingham councillor said he was concerned that the proposals could contribute to the character of the Jewellery Quarter being ‘chipped away’.

“I appreciate there is a balanced judgement to be made,” Coun Philip Davis said at the time. “But I am concerned that the scale of this development is potentially another incremental reduction in the character of the Jewellery Quarter.”

A decision on the plans was ultimately deferred – but at a meeting today, Coun Gareth Moore argued that they should have been refused.

“The design in my view is pretty poor, it’s particularly harmful to the heritage of the local area,” he said. “It looks like it’s really jarring in the CGI image.”

He continued: “They [the developers] have tried to cram more residential in and not provide any of the amenity space that actually makes it enjoyable to live in the city centre, like the ability to park a car or actually have some open space you can enjoy.

“This is a terrible scheme – the only option in my view is refusal.”

Coun Davis said he would abstain from the vote and added he was “sympathetic” to the points raised by Coun Moore.

But he also acknowledged that they want to bring parts of the Jewellery Quarter back into use.

“It’s a question of balance,” Coun Martin Brooks went on to argue.

“This scheme does bring back into use a very attractive building and I think generally it’s a scheme we probably should support.”

A council officer added: “I hear the willingness to preserve the character of the Jewellery Quarter.

“We have to be realistic about where this is – most of the site is not in the conservation area, it is adjacent to it.

“Needless to say, we need to respect the setting of it.”

She continued: “[The site] is pretty unsightly at the moment and [the] listed building is largely disused.

“I do feel at the mass and scale that it is, [the scheme] is bringing forward some heritage benefits [and] not having too detrimental impact on the character of the conservation area.”

The plans were ultimately approved by the planning committee earlier this morning.

A council officer had said prior to the meeting that the developer had already made “significant reductions” to the overall scale of the development during the evolution of the scheme.

“Requiring further reductions would jeopardise the viability of the scheme and some of the public benefits it offers,” they said.

“The development would be of high quality and would protect the heritage of an architecturally significant listed building,” they went on to say.

“It would deliver multiple public benefits, including new housing, commercial space suitable for creative industry occupation, and affordable housing and workspace.

“Taking them together, the public benefits are considered sufficient to outweigh the harms.”