|
New Development on Moor Pool
Most residents will be aware of the applications by Grainger plc to develop areas of the Moor Pool estate for housing. There are three sites: sites A and C (the Valley Site and Ravehurst Road Garages) were deferred pending completion of a Section 106 Planning Obligation; site Ei was approved subject to conditions. The details of these planning applications can be found on the website of the Moor Pool Regeneration Group at www.moorpool.co.uk
The Moor Pool Residents' Association along with the Moorpool Regeneration Group and Moor Pool Allotment Association as well as many residents, English Heritage, The Victorian Society, Hampstead Garden Suburb and the eminent planning consultant Mervyn Miller submitted detailed and well-reasoned objections. When the approval subject to condition was granted, the MRG launched a legal challenge, which was financially supported, by a large number of residents. Despite this, the approval was upheld and residents must now wait to see if Grainger will continue with this plan, which will inflict a scar on this historic garden suburb.
Why does it matter you might ask?
There are several reasons.
- Firstly Moor Pool is not only a conservation area; it is a conservation area with the enhanced protection of a 4(2) Direction Order which was pushed for by residents and supported by our Council. This was intended to safeguard what is a mostly well-preserved arts and crafts development and a significant event in Birmingham’s architectural history. John Sutton Nettlefold, who was Birmingham’s first Chairman of the Town Planning Committee, had a vision for how the City could expand which would move away from the back-to-backs and provide a model for healthy living and yet be financially viable to build. Although Nettlefold was a member of the Guest, Keen and Nettlefold industrial conglomerate, Moor Pool was not built to house the company’s workforce as was for example Bournville with Cadburys support. Instead it was intended for members of the general public. Indeed Birmingham became a pioneer in town planning under Nettlefold’s influence, leading to the Town Planning Act of 1909. The fact that the current Planning Committee chose to ignore this significance and Moor Pool’s protected status by approving these applications was a shameful act which reflects badly on those members of the Committee who voted for it.
- Secondly, this development which is in the heart of the Estate significantly damages Nettlefold’s design vision which had open space as a prerequisite. In particular, the major area of open space runs from the flats at the Circle down through the Bowling Green, the Moor Pool and then down through the Valley to the cottages, which form a visual stop at the end. Nettlefold’s architects, Martin and Martin, produced a design which worked with the features of the land rather than against it, by following natural contours. As such, Moor Pool has winding roads which follow these contours. Between the roads in areas of open space, there are allotments, tennis courts and the bowling green. The valley was originally all allotments with the stream flowing through the centre but some of these where lost in the early 1960’s to create garaging as cars became more prevalent and before Moor Pool’s significance was appreciated. Subsequently these garages were allowed to fall into disrepair, a situation which conveniently eased the decision by the Planning Committee in favour of the developer. The only way forward for Moor Pool to support and retain features like its listed Community Hall is to be able to approach organisations like the Heritage Lottery Fund for support. Unfortunately with the Estate scarred by the development, the case for funding will be harder to justify.
- The third main reason is technical. Martin and Martin worked with the land to evolve their plan. The stream, now partially culverted, runs through the centre of the Valley site, opens at the rear of the Moor Pool Tennis Club before becoming culverted again. The stream joins Chad Brook and flows on and down through the Chad Valley to the lake at the rear of Edgbaston golf course. The stream is fed by the various springs, which supply the Moor Pool, which is the other side of Ravenhurst Road from the Valley. In times of high rainfall or flash floods the Valley site floods when the stream can no longer cope. This is exacerbated by rainwater flowing down the broad Ravenhurst road to the low point in the bottom opposite the pool then cascading over the embankment (or potentially the new service road) into the Valley.
The Valley flooded
Water gathering opposite the Moor Pool
The pressure of water sufficient to break open the roof of the closed culvert in the Valley
Water pours down the bank from Ravenhurst Road into the Valley
|
Similar instances of flooding occur at the bottom of Harborne Hill where the same stream crosses under the main road. The MRA believed the flood risk assessment to be flawed, as it did not show all these well-documented flooding problems. Instead the residents proposed that the Valley should be returned to allotment use with a passive series of flood alleviation measures such as swales and basins incorporated to overcome these problems. This would have retained the integrity of the Estate whilst solving a very real problem. Of course there will be measures put in place as a planning condition to ‘solve’ this problem and the condition stipulated by BCC is quoted here.
7. Development shall not commence until a surface water drainage scheme for the site, based on sustainable drainage principles and an assessment of the hydrological and hydrogeological context of the development, has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The scheme shall be implemented in accordance with the approval details before the development is completed. The Scheme shall incorporate amphibian-friendly gully traps.
REASON: In order to prevent the increased risk of flooding, to improve and protect water quality, to ensure future maintenance of the surface water drainage system, and in the interests of wildlife conservation.
The question is will the scheme be sufficient to work? So far Graingers planning application has shown they are planning to dig up the majority of the remaining valley site allotments which tenants were evicted from and put in underground SUDS drainage tanks. We are not aware of any examples of SUDS being installed under allotments. SUDS require maintenance to continue to be effective and it is unspecified how this will be achieved with allotments in use above them. And of course the scheme has not yet been specified, so is unproven. There is currently a very unfortunate situation elsewhere in Harborne where the Council has approved a development and a resident is subsequently suffering severe flooding in their new home. Neither the Council nor the developer seemingly wants to take responsibility for getting the design wrong or putting matters right. We have asked the Council to clearly state what the situation will be if flooding occurs to new properties in the Valley and will report their response.
Building these 16 houses will be very significant for Moor Pool in all the ways outlined. It is irrelevant to the total number of houses needed nationally and ignores the fact that Birmingham has a wealth of empty unwanted properties built to satisfy so -called demand for new homes.
Moor Pool should be protected and used to demonstrate how a successful community spirit can follow from enlightened architectural design. As David Cameron, the Prime Minister said when the following question was put by the Chair of the MRA, Rob Sutton.
“We are lucky in Birmingham to have 2 ‘garden suburbs’, Moor Pool and Bournville. These are 100 year old ‘living communities’ rather than just ‘places to live’.
They have allotments linked to gardens and integral community facilities which should be viewed as good urban design
Whilst no one is suggesting we should start building ‘arts and crafts’ homes, would a future Conservative government undertake to examine why these communities work so well and how lessons can be drawn from them to make the future so-called ‘eco towns’ more community and conservation friendly?”
David Cameron M.P
“Yes and I think it’s a very good, its a very good question because if you look at some of the really ah successful development ideas that have come forward in the last 100 to 200 years, whether it’s for instance, Welwyn Garden City or Bournville, if you ask yourself would that happen under our current planning system today, the truth is no it probably wouldn’t because we keep changing the planning system and we keep saying we are going to give communities more control and actually we do the opposite; we produce more guidelines and more regional bureaucracies and more processes and the density targets have meant that new housing estates are all built with huge numbers of flats and very small homes and not much space and I think we do need to get to a situation when we stand back a bit, we open up a bit and we say to local communities, we say to a city council or a district council but it’s your community, as long as you have a proper local plan you ought to be more creative and more inventive and it’s rather tragic that a current day Bournville probably wouldn’t get through and a current day Welling Garden City wouldn’t get through and so I think we need to let go a little and trust local people a bit more and that way we will get some of the innovation we had in the past, some of which has been extremely successful.”
So we shall continue to oppose these developments and look to ways to preserve and safeguard the Estates future. We hope that existing and new residents will support these efforts which are in everyone’s interest.
Photographs of past flooding in the Valley Site
Millions of homes at risk of becoming uninsurable against floods LGA press release - 9 October 2010
Harborne Ward Committee Meetings
|