Birmingham City Council’s Andy Munro came to yesterday’s Digbeth Residents’ Association meeting.  Some notes on the interesting discussion that was had will be written up later, but during the meeting it emerged that Andy had written up and circulated his report of the Digbeth Study he undertook last year.

Below is Andy Munro’s introduction and his Digbeth Report.

DIGBETH REPORT

You may recall that late last year I undertook a consultation exercise to inform a study that I was undertaking on Digbeth, including lessons learnt from the regeneration approach that is being used in the Jewellery Quarter.

The reason for the late circulation of this report is the requirement for clearance for its release by the City Council and far more importantly further discussions with the public sector agencies on their appetite to support a reinvigorated approach to Digbeth etc. I am now satisfied that there is a real will to try and move things along within the obvious budgeting constraints that we all face these days.

Consequently, I am now looking to move forward the following:

• Undertaking an up to date mapping exercise on dereliction, ownership, the business and residential communities using a team of undergraduates from Birmingham University.
• Setting up a new Marketing Group to investigate not only how we can market the area better, but how we can develop ‘the product’ to attract more footfall.
• Setting up a new Developer/Landowners Group to feed into the development of the Big City Plan Guidance, how we tackle dereliction and stalled sites and to also assess the demand for a proposed ERDF funded grant scheme.
• Progressing the proposed relocation of the JFK Kennedy mural, the improvements to Bradford Street and a way forward on the best viable option to improve Digbeth High Street.

There are of course a myriad of other issues that will needed to be tackled over a period of time.

Please do not hesitate to contact me directly on email (andy_munro@birmingham.gov.uk) about the attached study report.

Regenerating Digbeth – A Way Forward