Allocate the Arden Eco Park site for employment uses and an Energy from Waste site and delete reference to a RIGS.

The wider former Arden Brickworks site, now called Arden Eco Park, covers a total area of around 38.6 hectares (95.4 acres). The Eco Park site is accessed from the A45 via a one-way service road running on the south side of and parallel to the A45 between Stonebridge Island to the east, at the junction of the A45/A452, and M42/J6 to the west.

The Arden Eco Park lies within the M42 Solihull Economic Gateway with additional expansion proposed to this gateway. It is located in the West Midlands Green Belt in the Meriden Gap which separates Birmingham from Coventry and is largely surrounded by agricultural land apart from a large Kennel complex – Top Hat Kennels - on the frontage which is likely to be directly affected by HS2, and Pasture Farm to the east. The HS2 line is due to pass just to the east of Arden Eco Park leading into the new Interchange Station north of the A45.

Birmingham International Airport, the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham International Station are located around 2 miles to the north west accessed off the A45 to the west of the M42.
The site is within the stategic UK central area.

Future development of the site

As such Arden Eco Park is a major previously developed site in a strategic position and already operates a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at the rear of the site alongside the remaining areas of clay extraction. The Local Plan recognises the clay extraction operation as well as the MRF as established facilities.

The major frontage part site comprises a Civic Amenity Facility which has operated for many decades to service the wider Solihull community but is proposed to be relocated to a site near Damson Parkway which for many is likely to be less accessible that the present facility at Bickenhill.

Behind the Civic Amenity site lie a large number of business units used by utility and civil engineering companies for offices and ancillary facilitate as well as open storage (B8) with ancillary facilities mainly covered by a Certificate of Lawful use granted by the LPA in 2007 (ref 2007/ 1171). The site comprises a large area of hardstanding a range of buildings in brick or profiled steel buildings which have largely replaced the former brickwork buildings.

The owners of the land have ambitions to establish a major Power from Waste facility on this site which would make a major contribution to the energy needs of the area around including the Arden Cross development area around the HS2 Interchange with over 5000 new houses as well as business development.

The Arden Eco Park site has been submitted under the Council’s Call for Sites in relation to the Local Plan as land for business and employment uses given into extensive past history. The Local Plan has not recognised that submission and no provision is being made in the plan for the site to contribute positively to needs of the Solihull Economic Gateway which it is well placed to do.

No provision is made in the Plan for dealing with major brownfield sites in the Solihull Local Plan which are included within many other local plans. Leaving it to the development management process is not sufficient to give a proper and appropriate policy framework for considering proposals. In the future.

The Arden Eco Park site should be allocated as a site for energy from waste and other related development.

RIGS Designation

The Local Plan refers to a Regionally Important Geological Site within the minerals working area. As we understand it RIGS are now called ‘Local Geological Sites’ and have a similar status to Local Wildlife Sites, i.e. non-statutory but protected through policy in Local Plans and as a material planning consideration in applications.

The designation for the Brickworks site still exists in the Submission version of the Local Plan and we believe that the citation for the former brickworks describes important exposures of the Triassic, Mercia Mudstone Group which are important for educational purposes. 'The strata consists of irregularly bedded red clay and mudstone, interbedded with green mudstone and green sandstone skerry horizons'.

While the quarry owners are prepared for students to observe the exposure subject to proper prior and safe arrangements, that exposure is not static and mineral working and subsequent landfill n that such exposure is continually on the move. While extraction is ongoing then presumably there will new exposures of these strata created periodically but the requirements of the minerals planning permission require the land to be back filled and returned to agriculture. As such that designation on the site should be removed from the Local Plan.