The controversial high speed line to Birmingham could destroy a significant slice of the city’s first new park for 130 years, it has been claimed.
Eastside City Park was opened six months ago at a cost of £11.7 million and is a contender for the 海角视频’s leading architectural award, the Stirling Prize.
But a plan published online by the high speed rail (HS2) developers shows a ‘main compound’ for storing supplies directly over the top of Eastside’s new outdoor events arena, where features include “dancing” water fountains.
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Birmingham City Council, which supports HS2, is talking to the company about moving the compound as well as other details of its route through the city.
The park was completed on time and for half the cost of an original scheme, designed before the 2008 credit crunch and the mooted arrival of HS2.
Using one end of the park for HS2 work would also affect people trying to walk into the city from Millennium Point and Birmingham City University, as well as residents of flats at Masshouse overlooking the site.
Park Street Gardens, close to the Hotel La Tour and the city centre’s largest collection of mature trees, would also be chopped because of HS2.
Digbeth Residents’ Association secretary Pamela Pinksi said: “We are incredibly proud of Birmingham’s first new park for 130 years – the developers of HS2 are not thinking about its impact on the community. The compound could be there for six, seven, eight, nine years.”
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A park supporter told the Mail: “There is land to the south of the railway lines that could be used for the main compound and land to the north towards Belmont Row.
“The events area takes up roughly a third of the park so it would be a reasonable assumption that that part had cost £4 million. Scores of people who worked on the park would be gutted if anything happens to it.”
Construction on HS2 is not likely to begin until near the end of this decade.
Council leader Sir Albert Bore, a leading figure in the creation of the park and a supporter of HS2, was not available for comment.
He is already in talks with the company about its proposed maintenance yard on LDV Alstrom sites in Washwood Heath.
The council wants to develop the land now rather than wait until the 2020s. He is expected to add the compound to a list of concerns.