Another delay arrives at Lendlease’s Birmingham job site with calls for more outdoor space | News

A council decision on Lendlease’s plans for Birmingham’s £1.9bn Smithfield regeneration has been delayed again due to concerns over the amount of outdoor space proposed.

Councilors and local organizations have raised objections to the size of a proposed public square and park, saying it is too small.

Councilor Gareth Moore said what had been proposed so far “was not in line with either the Birmingham development plan or the master plan for Smithfield, which always provided for a large capacity event space as part of it”.

A council officer’s report to a planning committee said last week that although the site can currently host a large festival, “there is no planning policy requirement that the market be of a minimum size or hold certain events”.

A Lendlease spokesman said: “We respect the planning committee’s decision and will now work closely with officers to understand the reasons for a postponement. We look forward to featuring the app again in the near future.”

Lendlease first submitted its planning application in December 2022, but Historic England said it could not support the proposals which it said would “damage the town’s historic landscape but also disrupt significant medieval remains”.

In the revised plans, which were submitted in February this year and replace original plans submitted in late 2022, Lendlease said all the proposed buildings would be built away from an 18th-century moat and medieval walls.

The 4,000-home Smithfield Birmingham scheme, one of the largest in the Second City’s history, has undergone a number of major design changes which have also seen second staircases added to residential blocks and building heights increased with 10 m.

A number of renowned architects are working on the plans, located next to the city’s Bull Ring shopping centre, including Stirling Prize winner Haworth Tompkins, as well as dRMM, Intervention Architecture, Minesh Patel Architects and RCKa, with James Corner Field Operations designing the public realm and landscape.

Lendlease was first named preferred partner by the city council five years ago and signed a contract with the authority in December 2020.

Also on the project team are Aecom as QS, DP9 as planning consultant, Turner & Townsend as lead adviser to Lendlease, structural engineer Arup, transport and civil engineer WSP and heritage consultant Montagu Evans.