Councillors stick with decision to demolish Birmingham’s Ringway Centre.
Birmingham’s landmark Ringway Centre – described as one of the city’s ‘brutalist icons’ – is set to be demolished despite a campaign to save it. Birmingham City Council’s planning committee yesterday approved plans for the building in Smallbrook Queensway to be demolished and for three apartment blocks to be built in its place.
The committee initially voted in favour of the proposals last September but they were considered again on Thursday after a leading barrister, appointed by the Save Smallbrook campaign group, sent a letter claiming there were grounds for a legal challenge to the decision. A council report released in advance of this week’s meeting however said the authority was of the view that matters raised within the letter did not amount to a legal error in the decision made.
Backers have previously said the plans would ‘open up Southside and Chinatown to the rest of the city centre’ as well as address a housing shortfall in the city. But those critical of the proposals previously called the site one of Birmingham’s most significant heritage buildings and argued the decision ‘flies in the face’ of the city’s climate pledges.
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