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West Midlands' New City

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Badger

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ha...evolution-new-city-proposed-for-Midlands.html

A “new city” has been proposed for the English countryside as radical planning powers are to be unveiled by ministers.

If like me you're a Midlands kid, you probably have some vague dream of what a joined up Birmingham and Coventry would be like - not saying I'd want it to ever happen.

Up to 100,000 homes would be built on green belt in the Midlands near the controversial High Speed 2 rail route as part of a dramatic expansion of housing.

The proposal is to build a new city in the midlands (their words not mine) in the Meriden gap between Birmingham and Coventry.

It would be centred around Birmingham International, with it's own high speed 2 station, and would "create Britain’s longest continuous conurbation, stretching 40 miles from Coventry to the far side of Wolverhampton.".

On the airport:

Prof McNaughton, who holds posts at Imperial College, London, and Nottingham University, also raised the prospect of a major expansion to Birmingham Airport, which could be rebranded “London Birmingham” because the travel time to the capital using the high-speed link would be shorter than the time taken to travel from London to Stansted.

We joked about London Birmingham a while back but I didn't realise it was an actual proposal.

For those who are not from the Midlands and don't know it's geography:

The West Midlands is a weird county in that it includes two large urban conurbations split apart by the Meriden gap.

WestMidlandsNumbered.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WestMidlandsNumbered.png

1. Wolverhampton (city)
2. Dudley (large town)
3. Walsall (large town)
4. Sandwell (includes West Bromwich, large town)
5. Birmingham (city)
6. Meriden gap (includes Solihull, part of the conurbation, large town)
7. Coventry (city)

The plan is basically to join 5 to 7 by building 100,000 houses in 6.
 
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Ivo

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100,000 houses at an average of four people per home would roughly match a city the size of Manchester (the Unitary Authority, not the conurbation). That is a substantial development that would put the building of Milton Keynes in the shade.

Any indications of a potential name for this development?

Also interesting to note the name "London Birmingham Airport" being floated in a more official manner than we could manage previously. Surely it's too far away though? It may be only 40 or so minutes from Euston post-HS2 but there is still the equivalent of London to Bristol between them in terms of physical distance! Even urban masses the size of Tokyo-Yokohama and Sao Paolo wouldn't use such a name - would they? Indeed, in this sense Birmingham would lose some of its international stature and could result in the area being demoted (in the eyes of those outside of Western Europe) to a satellite of London...

On a similar note, I see that a plan for a second Docklands-esque development has been mooted for the west of London. Where could this possibly be? The only area that seems sensible to me would be from roughly Chelsea/Battersea to Hammersmith Bridge...

I was about to ask if this could include a second DLR system, but the name "Chelney" just appeared in my head :lol:
 

Ascot

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Imagine Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Smethwick, Dudley, Wolves and Walsall being combined into one big "West Mids Council"; my pension would be lined up a treat! :D


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Badger

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With this new development, the existing conurbation (2,284,093), the addition of the Coventry-Bedworth conurbation (336,452), and the Nuneaton-Hinckley conurbation (132,236, "There is a very small amount of green belt between the Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area and the Nuneaton Urban Area in the north, however with the development of industrial and retail units in south Nuneaton, the two conurbations are virtually connected" - Wikipedia),

we're talking about a 3 million strong conurbation.

I wonder if they'd do the same with Nottingham-Derby, which would have a population of 1.5 million and perhaps make it stand out on the map more.
 
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VTPreston_Tez

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With this the case, there's a small ray of hope for another HS2 stop on the new city/Coventry border which would recieve limited services on HS2 (like Haute-Picardie) but recieve a few more local services and maybe a few InterCity West Coast (WCML) services to Scotland. Even so, this could cause a chain reaction to Coventry. (and this helps Scotland-Brum Airport passengers by starting a Pendolino service, supplements MIA nicely)
At least they're my opinions. I doubt a new station as such but I'm sure something will be done rail-related, possibly a Solihull station extension.
Also, will the new city just be an enlarged Solihull or not?
 

bb21

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the Nuneaton-Hinckley conurbation

I'm not sure the Leicestershire lads would be very happy at being realigned from the East Midlands to the West Midlands.

Imagine Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Smethwick, Dudley, Wolves and Walsall being combined into one big "West Mids Council"; my pension would be lined up a treat! :D

You wouldn't be laughing if they replace you with a cheaper import from a neighbouring council. ;)
 

sprinterguy

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One "continuous conurbation, stretching 40 miles from Coventry to the far side of Wolverhampton"

Sounds like absolute hell. I happen to like the green spaces around Birmingham, even if the stretch between Birmingham and Coventry is one of the more featureless stretches.

Local Governments need to sort out the existing cities, not go off building new ones. There's vast swathes of brownfield land around many inner cities that would be much better suited to residential use at far, far less environmental cost. If only developers would pull their fingers out and stop bickering about pointless whys and wherefores! <(

There are so many flaws in this plan that it beggars belief: Ecological damage, population distribution, dilution of existing services and city centres. The list just goes on and on. I don't know for how many more years I'm going to be living in the West Midlands, but for some time now I've been quite attracted to the notion of living in rural Warwickshire or Worcestershire later in life. I just hope that there's some rural West Midlands left by that point that hasn't been besmirched by another sprawling, concrete monstrosity. :roll:
 

Tomonthetrain

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Imagine Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Smethwick, Dudley, Wolves and Walsall being combined into one big "West Mids Council"; my pension would be lined up a treat! :D

You wouldn't be laughing if they replace you with a cheaper import from a neighbouring council. ;)

Lol Id probibly be the cheaper import in my line of work for the council!
 

SS4

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I suspect it'll be called Meriden after the gap :lol:. Or Elmdon after the airport's original name
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Or naming rights could go to the highest bidder <D
 

Ivo

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I suspect it'll be called Meriden after the gap :lol:. Or Elmdon after the airport's original name
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Or naming rights could go to the highest bidder <D

I hereby offer one billion Mobiums for the rights to name this new city in the English Midlands. I shall confer upon it the title Robotnikland.
 

Mojo

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Does anyone really want to live there anyway? There's so much wasteland and low-value properties even in Birmingham City Centre I wonder if there's that much demand for it.

Unless the idea is for it to have a station on HS2 and for people to commute North or South?
 

SS4

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Unless they plan to do a Crewe and hope a town/city builds up around the station?
 

Badger

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This isn't so much a "new station", more that the city will get a station simply because it's located where one's planned anyway.

http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Reviews/Resources/HS2 B'ham connections (cmd .jpg

I believe it's the "Birmingham Interchange" they're talking about.

This would theoretically make the city's centre around Bickenhill (so might take that name), (London Bickenhill might be a good name for the airport...)

Does anyone really want to live there anyway? There's so much wasteland and low-value properties even in Birmingham City Centre I wonder if there's that much demand for it.

It's true about the wasteland but there isn't really that much on this scale. Longbridge is becoming a town centre with a high street, the area around Millenium Point becoming Birmingham HS2, etc.

I think the fact they've referred to it as a city (although that's just the article's wording) rather than just "a lot of houses" suggests that it would have it's own CBD, it's own jobs, and it's own identity. It may well serve primary as a satellite to London, but it would still have it's own thing going on.


Also - given the whole place being developed - there might be provision to four track the line from International to Coventry (my idea not a proposal from the above, and I'm resident big-ideas-that-are-impractical-or-unnecessary person), would it be worth it?
 
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