Residents oppose plans for massive outlet shopping centre

CAMPAIGNERS opposed to plans for a designer outlet shopping centre have to taken their protest to the streets.

The 200,000 sq ft development is proposed for council-owned land close to Junction 2 of the M5.

But protesters opposed to the sale of Lion Farm playing fields in Oldbury picketed a meeting at Sandwell Council this week.

They want to halt the proposal to build a retail outlet that developers say could create 2,000 jobs and attract £200 million of investment to the borough. Protesters claim the plan is being pushed through while local residents are being kept in the dark.

Mike Siviter, who lives on Newbury Lane close to the proposed site, said he only learned of it a few weeks ago.

Explaining why he is attending the demonstration, he said: “I can’t understand why this is being put forward.

“I thought the councils were supposed to be redeveloping brownfield sites not green spaces.

“This proposal will lead to a huge increase in traffic and congestion with all the problems of car fumes and such.”

He added: “It seems to us that these decisions are being taken behind closed doors and it’s the secrecy that concerns me and others as much as anything else.”

Protesters are also concerned about the sale of Londonderry Playing Fields, Smethwick, as the site for the new build Aquatics Centre for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The Lion Farm site presently accommodates 13 football fields and changing facilities.

In 2012, Sandwell Council discussed a sales option for the land with Birmingham-based developer Jeremy Knight-Adams.

Under the agreement the authority would sell the land to the developer under certain conditions.

Any development would then have to be agreed by by the council’s development committee, before being finally approved by an independent planning inspector.