Calthorpe Estates’ application to increase their approved Building 4 proposals at Pebble Mill, an ambitious mixed medical facility building to 9,000 sq m from the original 5,000 sqm vision first approved back in 2014, was today approved by the Birmingham City Council planning committee.
The planning committee granted outline planning permission following their deferment for further consultation and technical examinations of the first submission at the 24th May committee.
The proposed building on Plot 4 of the former BBC Pebble Mill site is to be positioned between Circle Health’s new private hospital and rehabilitation centre, and the Birmingham NHS Dental Hospital on Pebble Mill’s main Mill Pool Way.
Ralph Minott, Director of Development for Calthorpe Estates, said: “Whilst pleased to see the application finally approved, we nevertheless have to be concerned at yet another example of the undue pressure this planning committee has placed on the city’s planning team by calling for the deferment.
“This is an evolution of an extant planning permission for building 4 and we have worked closely with the Birmingham City Council planning team since the first iteration of this scheme to provide the planning detail demanded of us. We know how busy we are in our regeneration plans, not just at Pebble Mill but across the Calthorpe Estate and the added demands over the last month, that we would suggest were unnecessarily called for by the planning committee, must impact the planning departments capacity to deal with our and others applications.
“We therefore have some sympathy to the plight of the Birmingham City Council planning team, who are under pressure in resource and budget, to have to revisit so much in this application that fell outside the scope of an Outline Application. Where the planning inspectorate have created national policy definitions, should those terms of national planning policy reference not be adopted to guide the decisions of the planning committee?
“We have received strong interest from potential occupiers for purpose-built, open plan medical facilities, which has accordingly driven our view that our proposals at Building 4 can offer more in this location.
“Pebble Mill’s regeneration has been guided around excellence and the creation of jobs since the launch of original masterplan in 2003, post the BBC. I see that Calthorpe Estates have the capacity within this expanded proposal to now attract world-leading specialists and pioneering medical offers to Edgbaston Medical Quarter at Building 4”
Alongside the award-winning Birmingham Dental Hospital & School of Dentistry, and Bupa Care Home’s 62-Room care centre, already opened on the Pebble Mill site, Circle Health’s new private hospital and rehabilitation centre is taking shape and due to open in the Spring 2019.
When complete, Pebble Mill will offer over some 500,000 sq ft of world-class medical and healthcare facilities, in addition to new food & beverage space and community access sporting amenities, meeting Calthorpe Estates and the City’s masterplan ambitions, for decades ahead.