Canalside block will get extra storey
IMPRESSIVE pictures show plans for the next stages of a 1,150-home canalside development which forms part of a huge transformation of Greater Icknield. Councillors on Birmingham City Council’s planning committee are due to consider updates to the Icknield Port Loop (IPL) project, already under way at land off Icknield Port Road, Ladywood.
A new planning application seeks alterations to previous proposals which received reserved matters consent in 2017, allowing for 98 homes in seven apartment blocks fronting onto Birmingham Canal.
Among the alterations to phases 2B and C are design changes to the two “Corner House” blocks, designed by Glenn Howells Architects, and five “Mansion House” blocks, designed by ShedKM. Buildings would increase from five to six storeys – still in line with initial outline consent granted – and parking provision would drop slightly from 49 to 46 spaces.
There would be 68 cycle spaces between the two types of apartment blocks forming this phase of the plan backed by Urban Splash and Places for People.
The plans also include a “central green”, fronting onto the canal, and a ground floor commercial unit on the south-east of the site. According to the documents to committee members, five objections were received following a public consultation.
These were on grounds including the height and density of buildings, potential “impact on navigation along canal” and “inadequate” parking provision. There were no objections from other organisations consulted although the city council’s employment access team recommended a condition to secure “on-site employment for local labour”.
Officers recommended the new application is approved, and stated in the documents to councillors: “This first phase of the development has already set a benchmark for the wider site in terms of creating a new and distinctive character area, containing buildings, public open spaces and public realms of a high design quality, with high levels of amenity for future occupiers and an appropriate approach towards sustainable forms of transport. The current proposals seek to add to this offer further and reinforce this approach.”