New Birmingham masterplan will double active travel routes

A 20-year masterplan to transform Birmingham into a greener city with better transport options and higher quality, energy-efficient new homes, has been unveiled.

The plans involve reallocating space away from cars towards greener projects, including a large city-centre park, cycle paths and walkways.

“Like all great cities, Birmingham forever reinvents itself and our transformation is never-ending,” said Councillor Ian Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council.

“Even so, our emergence in recent years underlines why I’ve labelled this a Golden Decade of opportunity for the businesses, people and communities of Birmingham.

“There’s a real buzz about Birmingham at the moment, a growing city of enormous potential and – as we showed to great effect last summer when hosting the Commonwealth Games – we’re ready to fulfil that potential.

“Now this framework, the most important strategy for Birmingham this century, is set to supercharge our quest to be a leading international city.”

The council says the delivery of Our Future City: Central Birmingham Framework 2040 will double the city’s green spaces to a level comparable with Vienna and double its network of active travel routes to 200 kilometres.

Green way

The plans also include a change to the city’s ring road, transforming it into a “green way”.

Councillor Ward said the local authority would work closely with developers and investors to fund its plan, and was optimistic as to how they would be received by the public after a consultation process.

“As we grow the city we’ll be looking to attract in that investment that will allow us to not only increase our density and create more homes and more jobs but also to increase the amount of green space,” he added.

The framework, which has been developed by engineering firm Arcadis, outlines the potential to create 74,000 new jobs – an 80 percent increase on the city centre’s current employment capacity – as well as up to 35,000 new homes.

“The scale and nature of the proposed transformation has not been seen in over a century,” said Simon Marks, Birmingham and Midlands City Executive for Arcadis.

“Moreover, inclusive growth is at its heart where the communities and citizens of Birmingham will directly benefit from the transformation.”

Image: Arcadis