Penkridge 2050
Introduction
This website has been produced on behalf of Staffordshire County Council. It offers some ideas on how Penkridge could grow sustainably and address the challenges and opportunities facing the District and Penkridge up to 2050.
The County Council owns land that could help meet development needs and deliver local infrastructure and is exploring the potential of the land for the wider benefit of Penkridge.
The ideas are intended to stimulate debate, identify issues that require further consideration, and start to shape what could be a shared vision for the future of the town, critically with your participation. To begin this process, some initial thinking towards a vision for Penkridge in 2050 is set out, along with some of the benefits this may achieve, and different scenarios of how the landholdings could help the town grow.
Importantly, these are not fixed proposals and they have no formal planning status but they are concepts to help express the benefits listed and stimulate debate.
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Flood risk and drainage
Areas of medium and high flood risk have been identified adjacent to the River Penk and Whiston Brook but these can be avoided. A range of sustainable drainage measures also has the potential to manage surface water drainage and avoid any adverse impact on flooding.
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A new spine road
The A449 through Penkridge suffers from high traffic volumes when vehicles are diverted off the M6 motorway. A potential solution is for diverted traffic to be better managed with a new spine road that avoids the centre of Penkridge.
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Repurpose existing routes
The major advantage of having a railway station with frequent services to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Stafford but the station itself could be improved. Connections across the railway are few and narrow, underpinning a requirement for new spine road for create fit-for-purpose connections, which offers the potential to repurpose existing routes for pedestrians and cyclists.
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Recreational routes
Recreational routes in the form of public rights of way are limited in the study area. With findings in the South Staffordshire Landscape Sensitivity Study underpinning the importance of a landscape-led response, there is the opportunity for development to be structured by green spaces and corridors focused on retained landscape features such as trees, hedgerows and watercourses. Integrating a green infrastructure network also offers the potential to integrate a network of recreational routes.
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Heritage features
Heritage features, although mainly in the centre of Penkridge, include Cuttlestone Bridge and the Levedale Viaduct. The field pattern is also considered to be of heritage value and therefore their retention could compliment a landscape-led approach.
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Green belt review
Although the southwest of the study area lies in the Green Belt, a future Green Belt review may justify its potential for being released to play a part in accommodating future growth.
Understanding the town
It is important to understand both the constraints and opportunities that shape what is possible or desirable in Penkridge. Some of the key opportunities and constraints include:
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Silverstone Community Center
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234 Kingsway Road
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Smith Park Botanical Gardens
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Penkridge lies within the Greater Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area. Both Birmingham and the Black Country are unable to find enough sites to meet their housing needs. For example, the draft Black Country Plan (August 2021) identifies the need for c. 76,000 new homes up to 2039 but land for only c. 48,000 found within the Black Country authorities (Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and Sandwell). Birmingham City is also reviewing its plan and it is highly likely there will be a further shortfall of land to meet its housing needs
As one of the authorities that has a duty to find sites, South Staffordshire Council has identified Penkridge as a location for housing growth, due to its good transport links and proximity to key employment areas. The emerging South Staffordshire Local Plan proposes that new housing could be built in Penkridge up to 2038.
South Staffordshire Local Plan South Staffordshire Council (sstaffs.gov.uk)
Looking further ahead to 2050, Staffordshire County Council is exploring what the longer-term potential for growth could be achieved at Penkridge.
Looking further ahead to 2050, Staffordshire County Council owns land to the west of Penkridge and is exploring the longer-term potential for growth that could be achieved. As informed with your involvement the County Council aims to identify a level of growth that will be appropriate for Penkridge over this longer-term period. This aims to inform the strategic planning decisions that Staffordshire District Council will need to make for Penkridge and the District.
There are key advantages in planning for long-term growth in this way, in terms of being able to identify and secure the local and strategic infrastructure that will be required to support growth and benefit Penkridge as a whole. This is considered to be a preferable approach because planning ahead, is proactive and allows key decision expectations to be firmly identified and understood. Importantly it also avoids the disadvantages of otherwise piecemeal developments which results in new housing but limited infrastructure.
This is a key opportunity for you to be engaged and participate in this longer-term thinking. It is a vital part of this process, for the County Council to develop a better understanding of the aspirations of Penkridge residents.
Penkridge Planning Background
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Long term growth
Looking further ahead to 2050, Staffordshire County Council is exploring what the longer-term potential for growth could be achieved at Penkridge. The County Council owns land that could be developed and seeks to capture the increase in values that could be generated by development to invest back into Penkridge. The County Council is therefore exploring the potential improvements that the development could integrate and support that would be of best benefit to Penkridge.
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Key advantages
There are key advantages in planning for long-term growth, in terms of being able to identify and secure strategic scale infrastructure that will be required to support growth and benefit Penkridge as a whole. This is considered to be a preferable approach, because planning ahead, is proactive and allows key expectations to be firmly identified and understood. Importantly it also avoids the disadvantages of otherwise piecemeal (i.e. ad-hoc) developments, which are less capable of securing significant benefits that realise local aspirations of what Penkridge should in the future as a place.
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Engage and participate
This is a key opportunity to be engaged and participate in this longer-term thinking. It is a vital part of this process, to develop a better understanding of the aspirations adding a new dimension to those set out in existing plans and strategies, by looking further ahead.
Using this current thinking the County Council has initial ideas to share on how the town could potentially grow. These ideas aim to stimulate debate and identify issues that require onward research, critically with your participation in the process. To begin this conversation the thinking towards a vision for Penkridge in 2050 is set out, with some of the benefits this may achieve, then sets out some scenarios of how the town could grow in this long term period. These are not fixed proposals, they are concepts to help express the benefits listed and stimulate debate. At the end of this process the County Council aims to create a prospectus that with a preferred approach that reflects your feedback and involvement. In turn the prospectus will be a key document that will promote the longer term growth of Penkridge.
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Towards a Vision for Penkridge 2050
Penkridge has the potential to become an attractive garden settlement - which put simply, is a new development that combines the best of town and country. This requires planning for growth comprehensively for the long term to maximise the potential benefits that could be funded by the value generated by new, carefully planned development.
Penkridge should be known as a beautiful and healthy place, with affordable homes, high-quality green spaces, access to jobs, infrastructure including fit-for-purpose services, amenities, and assets that the local community will take stewardship of.
This thinking for this vision embeds the principles for creating garden communities. First conceived by Ebenezer Howard over 100 years ago as part of the garden cities movement. These principles remain relevant today and are important for creating places that are attractive, active, healthy, and above all well managed and sustainable. Our thinking for the long term is important in this context to capture the imagination and aspirations of the local community and stakeholders on how this could be achieved.
