Please take your time in looking at the information provided and feel free to ask any of our representatives any questions you may have with regard to our proposals.

The Site The site comprises currently developed land within and immediately adjacent to Weavers Wharf Retail Park in Kidderminster town centre. The site extends to approximately 3.22 Ha.

The site encompasses Weavers Wharf car park, the Pizza Hut unit and the access roads, plus land immediately adjacent to the retail park comprising buildings between Lower Mill Street and Weavers Wharf (including the Job Centre Plus and a number of retail/restaurant/café uses), Crown House and the Bull Ring and parts of Crown Lane.

Introduction and welcome

Welcome!Thank you for attending our exhibition. We would like to present to you our vision for the expansion of Weavers Wharf and the new public square at Bull Ring, Kidderminster.

About Henderson Global InvestorsWeavers Wharf Retail Park is owned by Henderson Global Investors, (Henderson) - a leading property asset manager with c. £12.7 billion (as at 31 June 2013) of property funds under management globally.

They are leading the proposed expansion of Weavers Wharf and the new public square at Bull Ring. Henderson has a proven track record in delivering regeneration in town and city centres.

The proposal is supported by Wyre Forest District Council.

Site context and ownership The Site showing Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas

Crown House Bull Ring

Application Boundary

Land within Henderson Global Investors ownership

Application Boundary

Conservation Areas

Listed Buildings

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Kidderminster Central Area Action Plan Wyre Forest District Council has prepared detailed guidance for the development of the town’s central area in the form of an Area Action Plan (AAP).

It focuses new retail development in two areas in the town centre - the Eastern and Western Gateways (Policy KCA.GPB1). This site is allocated as a town centre site in the Western Gateway, where the following uses will be acceptable: retail, leisure, hotel, offices, residential and non-residential institutions (Policy KCA.WG3). The Western Gateway is also identified as the focus for tourism and leisure uses, where major new leisure and multiple-unit food and drink proposals will be concentrated towards the waterside environments of the Western Gateway (Policy KCA.GPB7).

The Council are promoting the improvement of the Bull Ring as a new town centre square with a landmark feature, which is envisaged to partially comprise a shared space (Policy KCA.TTC1). The potential redevelopment of Crown House would help to realise the Council’s aspiration for this new piece of public space.

Previous Work by Wyre Forest District CouncilThe District Council commissioned concept architects Taylor Young in 2010 to consider the key concepts necessary for a successful public square at Bull Ring.

Their work culminated in the production of concept drawings which outlined the following key components:

• Retaining access to Church Street for access and deliveries

• Space for car parking within a shared surface environment

• Space for restaurants and retail with outdoor seating

• Space for informal seating/relaxation

• Space that can be used for a market and other informal events

• Trees and areas of lawn to help make the space green

• The relocation of the Baxter statue

Background and Context

M&S

BAXTER URC CHURCH

LOWER MILL STREET

CHURCH STREET

BLACK HORSE LANE

Grass Lawn

Church Square

New Retail Buildings

Market

River

Car Parking

Water Fountain

New CafeBuilding

Baxter Statue

New Bridge

BULL RING

Disabled Parking

New Vehicle Junction

Service Yard

The proposals seek to deliver the Council’s aspirations for more intensive development at the site, improved retail and restaurant facilities and delivery of a multi-functional public space in place of the existing Crown House at Bull Ring. The Council’s aspirations are set out in recently adopted planning policy.

Planning PolicyWyre Forest Core StrategyThe adopted Core Strategy identifies Kidderminster as the strategic centre for the District and aims to enhance its role as providing a focus for new housing, retail, office and leisure developments.

The Strategy confirms the District’s intention to plan for an additional 25,000 sq m of retail floorspace between 2006 and 2026. It recognises that there is great potential for the regeneration of Kidderminster town centre, particularly given that the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and River Stour both run through the town centre, which provide a significant opportunity to create new waterside destinations.

Planning policy extract Early concept plans produced for the council

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The Proposals

Henderson has developed a proposal which positively responds to the planning policy context, which aims to transform the site in to a fully integrated extension of Kidderminster town centre.

The Bull RingTwo new public spaces will be created through the demolition of Crown House.

The eastern space will be a hard paved piazza suitable for an expanded market or events, as well as occasional car parking. The western space will focus on the de-culverted River Stour and will feature a terrace and offers space for the relocated Baxter Statue.

Weavers WharfThis part of the site will provide a new retail store to the south of Lower Mill Street, with the main retail façade fronting the car park.

The existing Weavers Wharf car park layout will be adapted to provide three restaurant pavilions adjacent to the canal which will create an attractive waterside environment that provides a high level of activity throughout the day and into the evening.

A new canal bridge will be constructed to connect Weavers Wharf car park with the Matalan Site. This will provide pedestrian and vehicular access across the canal, which will integrate this underused site and parking with Weavers Wharf. It will also facilitate future redevelopment opportunities to the west of the canal.

• Demolition of Crown House

• A new anchor retail unit

• 3 restaurants next to the canal

• 4 cafe / retail units over looking the new square

• Works to open up the River Stour around Bull Ring

• Landscaping and public realm enhancements, including a new multi-purpose public square at Bull Ring

• A new bridge over the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal

The proposal includes:

Concept masterplan

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Design

Appearance The new buildings around the Bull Ring are designed primarily to be cafes and restaurants that will open up to the pedestrian routes and spaces around the Bull Ring and opened up River Stour.

The buildings will be architecturally distinctive using a range of quality materials encompassing stone, brick, glass and timber. The glazed frontages will be designed to open up to take advantage of good weather. The units along the canal front are doublefronted initially addressing Weavers Wharf and are designed to attract customers across the car park before the buildings open out on to a sunny south and west facing terrace encouraging al fresco dining.

The new retail building will further anchor Weavers Wharf’s retail offer, the inner active retail elevation will address the major retail footfalls providing a dramatic and distinctive retail frontage.

The outer elevation to Lower Mill Street is equally important but treated entirely differently. The lower part of the elevation ascends through to the edge of the Bull Ring as a screening veil that gradually reveals the retail building within it.

Landscaping Concept A broad, legible tree lined pedestrian route will traverse the site east to west linking the Bull Ring to the former Matalan site.

Large trees will be planted around the perimeter of the Bull Ring to help to define the new public space along with a grove of smaller trees running parallel to the river. Climbers and ground cover shrubs will be used strategically to soften the concrete culvert walls that define the exposed section the River Stour. Other planting will help to screen the service yards and soften the car parking areas.

Artists impression of new restaurants and retail

The new buildings proposed within the development will all be highly visible and play an important role in underpinning Weavers Wharf as a retail destination, whilst increasing its attraction as a leisure destination into the evening.

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Design

The River Stour is currently culverted under Crown House. The demolition of this building provides an opportunity to open up the watercourse to restore it to its natural conditions, which will improve its ecological value.

Sustainability The westernmost part of the site (on the existing car park) falls within Flood Zone 2 and a small portion immediately adjacent to the Canal falls within Flood Zone 3.

The remainder of the site is not at risk of flooding. The new bridges over the canal and River Stour will be constructed above flood level so as not to affect the existing flow of the canal. The demolition of Crown House will also reduce flood risk.

The buildings will be designed to exceed the minimum requirements of the Building Regulations, taking into account the use of energy efficiency measures and low and zero carbon technologies where appropriate.

Heritage The site is located in proximity to a range of built heritage assets including three Conservation Areas and listed buildings.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Conservation Area, which includes the canal itself, the various historic elements of its associated infrastructure and tow path, are situated to the west of the application site. The development will include a new bridge over the canal which will be designed to respect the character and appearance of the canal and its environs.

No.5 Lower Mill Street was the former venue of the Frank Freeman Dance Club which has associations with popular music culture from the mid-late 20th century (as evidenced by a local Civic Society plaque). However, the building itself is not of any particular architectural quality and has been significantly altered over the years. We are keen to hear your ideas on how the use of the blue plaque building for popular music could be commemorated in the proposed scheme.

Artists impression of Bull Ring

Design concept for Bull Ring Suggested treatment to areas adjacent to the canal

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Scheme Outcomes and Benefits

Other benefits include:• Achieve better links between Weavers Wharf

and Vicar Street / High Street

• The removal of Crown House

• Provide more interaction with the canal and River Stour

• Promote a café culture and extend the night-time economy

• Better shopping provision

• Providing new civic amenity space which is suitable for sitting out, an expanded market and events, as well as occasional car parking

• Provide a permanent home for the Baxter statue.

The expansion of Weavers Wharf and the provision of a new public square at Bull Ring, will deliver a number of social and economic benefits.

weaverswharfandbullring@turleyassociates.co.uk

Weavers Wharf and Bull Ring c/o Turley Associates 9 Colmore Row Birmingham, B3 2BJ

Your comments

Construction Phase

Investment in construction of the proposed scheme

Annual GVA Economic output uplift locally

£circa 11m

4.6m GVA2

= 142 jobs created (person years)

= 70 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) construction Jobs p.a.1 indirect /induced FTE jobs during construction

Operational Phase

Annual GVA Economic output uplift locally

£320,000m business rate revenue per annum, of which the Local Authority could retain 50%

4.5m GVA

£320,000 Business Rates

= 210 gross FTE jobs created

= 11 indirect /induced FTE jobs during construction

We welcome your views and comments and will take these into account when developing the scheme further.

We will submit the planning application to Wyre Forest District Council by the end of 2013.

Once the application has been submitted, the Council will undertake their own consultation and you will have another opportunity to comment on our final proposals.

To submit your comments, or for further information, please email or write to:

1 Assumes 2 year construction period. 2 GVA (Gross Value Added) is the measure of the value of all goods and services produced in an economy. It is a key measure of output.

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