Birmingham Jewellery Quarter car park urban farm plans - in pictures

A bid to turn the upper floors of a Jewellery Quarter multi-storey car park into an urban farm has been approved - despite some fears over the loss of spaces.

Grassroots food organisation Slow Food Birmingham is now free to redevelop the fifth and sixth floors of Vyse Street car park.

The space will be transformed into veg plots, greenhouses, community gardens and more as Slow Food Birmingham looks to provide Brummies with fresh local produce grown using sustainable methods. Level five of the car park will focus on community use and education while level six, the top floor, will be all about food production.

An online petition looking to block the scheme reached more than 500 signatures as residents and businesses feared the loss of 39 parking spaces, bringing the total number down from 553 to 514. Birmingham City Council also heard from objectors about the potential for jewellers to be forced out of the area.

But at a planning committee meeting on Thursday (July 27), councillors hailed the Vyse Street Food Project’s green initiatives and voted to approve the application. Eleven voted in favour and just one voted against.

Coun David Barrie said: “I sincerely hope they have done some calculations about weight loading on the structure. There have been occasions, particularly in America, where similar things have happened and they’ve found the structure is not suitable for the weight when you talk about large planted earth and so on.”

Coun Lee Marsham added: “The Jewellery Quarter is a historic and vibrant gem of our city, and the proposed urban farm will add a green jewel to its crown.” Here’s a look of the plans in pictures: