Town Centre Regeneration and Masterplanning

Soho Park: Smethwick

Outline

Appointed by Regenco and Advantage West Midlands, Atam’s appointment was to take a fresh look at the Soho Park proposals which had been previously prepared and suggested wholesale land assembly and re-development for residential use. The earlier work was predicated on significant funding being available for this land assembly and relocation of significant industry to other parts of the West Midlands.

The Soho Park area includes the historic Soho Foundry (1795) founded by Thomas Boulton and James Watt and several lucrative scrap metal dealers.

The commission therefore required a review of earlier work and a pragmatic new approach to be found which would address the needs of the community in the area.

Services Provided

The project required the following actions

• To review the earlier work and to critique this in delivery terms.
• Following the critique to propose options which are deliverable in the context of policy, timescales and funding.
• To cost and appraise the options – including an emphasis on assessing land assembly and associated relocation costs.
• To market test the emerging proposals
• To prepare a clear plan of action.

The recommendations made were to consolidate the scrap and industrial activities and thus create a stronger buffer from the residential community and the prospective development sites nearby. The report was well received and the commissioning organisations progressed with implementation.

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