The first steps to transform the south side of Birmingham city centre were taken this week with the submission of the planning application to construct a new John Lewis department store at Birmingham New Street station.
The detailed planning application submitted to Birmingham City Council outlines plans for a new 250,000 sq ft John Lewis department store to be located on the south side of the redeveloped New Street station.
The plans will also see the upgrade of the Pallasades Shopping Centre above the station.
Andrew Skidmore, programme sponsor for Network Rail, commented:
“The rebuilding of Birmingham New Street is well underway and is set to deliver the first benefits to passengers when phase 1 completes at the end of next year.
“The project will also deliver huge economic benefits to Birmingham by opening up the city for regeneration. Today’s plans make the economic case for the redevelopment even stronger, by directly creating 650 new jobs and kick starting the transformation of the south side of the city.”
The planning application follows a public exhibition in March where people had the chance to look at the plans and feed back their comments. More than 1,650 people visited the exhibition and over 300 comments cards were returned.
The response was overwhelmingly positive with more than 93% of respondents agreeing with the plans to redevelop the south side of New Street station.
The feedback also showed that:
- People were strongly supportive of the project and new department store as long as they created employment opportunities for local people and brought other economic benefits for the city.
- The design for the redeveloped station was popular with people making it clear they wanted the design of the new department store to fit in with and complement the existing designs for the redevelopment of New Street.
- There was optimism about what the project will do to improve retail in Birmingham city centre.
- Support for the scheme and station redevelopment would remain strong as long as disruption continues to be kept to a minimum during construction
As the project develops, Network Rail will continue to work closely with Birmingham City Council and John Lewis to address these areas and the other feedback received during the consultation.
