Stourbridge Road car park closes on 25 September

Bromsgrove District Council has advertised an order that will take Stourbridge Road car park out of use on 25 September 2026. The notice was published on 14 August. Anyone who wants to object has until 4 September to write in.

The car park holds 71 spaces, five of them accessible, and charges £1 for an hour or £6 for ten. It is the council’s long-stay car park at the Birmingham Road and Stourbridge Road junction, close to the council’s own Parkside offices and to Aldi.

The council’s stated reason is short. Its statement of reasons says the site “will no longer be in use as a car park from 25th September 2026”, and that this is “part of the final stage of a long-standing project for the Council owned site to be redeveloped”.

Long-standing is right. The land was sold in 2014. The only live application to redevelop it has been sitting undecided since 2017.

What the order actually does

The Bromsgrove District Council (Off-Street Parking Places) Order 2026 does three things:

• It revokes every previous off-street parking order in the district and replaces them with a single 2026 order.
• It rolls in the minor changes made by a variation order in 2025.
• It removes Stourbridge Road car park from Schedule 1, the list of parking places, and from Schedule 2, the car parks season ticket holders can use.

The draft schedules are on the council’s consultation page. Stourbridge Road does not appear anywhere in the draft Schedule 1. Tariffs at the other car parks are unchanged.

Season ticket holders keep four car parks: School Drive, Parkside, North Bromsgrove and New Road.

To object, write to the Assistant Director Legal Democratic and Procurement Services at Bromsgrove District Council, Parkside, Market Street, Bromsgrove B61 8DA, stating your grounds. The notice is dated 14 August and allows 21 days, so the deadline is Friday 4 September 2026. The order can also be inspected at the Customer Service Centre at Parkside, 09:00 to 17:00 on weekdays.

The redevelopment the council is clearing the way for

Cabinet approved the disposal of the freehold on 3 December 2014. The buyer was Cordwell Property Group, a development company based in Belbroughton.

The report members saw that night sets out what they were buying into:

• The site is about 0.72 acres of long-stay car park at the Birmingham Road and Stourbridge Road junction.
• It had been marketed by GJS Dillon after members approved a marketing exercise in April 2012.
• Seven expressions of interest came in. One was excluded for falling short of the District Valuer’s figure, and one bidder later withdrew.
• A panel scored the rest on price, regeneration, planning fit and deliverability. Cordwell scored highest.
• Cordwell’s winning proposal was three ground-floor retail units with 35 car parking spaces, with a possible first-floor unit for a fitness provider.
• The car park had generated £12,000 of income in 2013/14, and officers were told to build that loss into the medium term financial plan.

A higher offer was received and turned down, because the development attached to it did not fit the Area Action Plan’s principles for the site.

What has actually come forward is not three retail units. It is a drive-thru.

The application that has taken eight years

Application 17/01468/FUL proposes a freestanding restaurant with a drive thru, car parking, landscaping and an altered access. The applicants are McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd and Cordwell Leisure Developments Ltd.

The planning register records it as received and validated on 20 December 2017. On 20 August 2026 its status still reads “Awaiting decision”. There are 143 documents on the file.

It went to the planning committee on 9 April 2026 and was not decided. The minutes record what happened:

• Officers confirmed the site sits inside the defined town centre, so paragraph 97 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which tells councils to refuse fast-food outlets near schools, did not require refusal.
• County Highways had objected to an earlier, larger two-storey version, then withdrew its objection to the smaller building now proposed.
• A £10,000 section 106 contribution would go towards retiming the Mover traffic light system and future calibration at the junction.
• Consultants Jacobs and Mott MacDonald disagreed with County Highways over whether the traffic modelling was sound. Mott MacDonald’s position was that the impact at the Parkside junction was “not proven” rather than demonstrably severe, and demonstrably severe is the threshold for refusal.
• There were 454 contributors on the application at that point: 427 objections and 26 in support.

One councillor moved refusal on the grounds that the modelling had limitations and deficiencies. That was withdrawn after legal advice and a ten-minute adjournment. A second alternative recommendation, to defer for better data and testing under all reasonable future scenarios, was carried.

The application has not been back since. A draft legal agreement was added to the file on 29 July 2026, three weeks before the council advertised the car park’s removal from the parking order.

Where the 71 spaces are supposed to go

Members asked officers that question in April. The answer, from the committee minutes, was that parking reports showed very little spare capacity in some town centre car parks, but that School Drive and North Bromsgrove had enough excess capacity to absorb the 71 spaces.

Officers added two things. Council employees would be asked to use those two car parks. And Recreation Road car park, near Asda, was often at 50 per cent capacity.

On that basis officers advised that it would be hard to justify asking the developer for a section 106 contribution towards reopening the Churchfield Road car park.

For scale, the council’s own figures give School Drive 128 spaces and North Bromsgrove 185. Recreation Road South, the largest, has 292.

What it means for you

• If you park at Stourbridge Road, 25 September is the last day. There is no phased closure in the notice.
• If you hold a season ticket, it will still work at School Drive, Parkside, North Bromsgrove and New Road.
• If you want to object to the parking order, write to the council by 4 September, and say what your grounds are. An objection to the parking order is not an objection to the planning application.
• If your concern is the drive-thru itself, that is a separate process. Application 17/01468/FUL remains open on the planning register and has not been decided.
• The two nearest alternatives the council names are School Drive and North Bromsgrove, both at £1 an hour and £6 for ten hours.

Related

• Bromsgrove roadworks and travel: every closure in force this week, and what the town’s car parks charge.
• Bromsgrove planning news: the Local Plan timetable and the district’s housing target.
• Buntsford Hill 293 homes plan: comments close on 8 September.

Sources

• Bromsgrove District Council, notice of proposals, 14 August 2026 for the 25 September date, the 21-day objection period and the address for representations.
• Bromsgrove District Council, statement of reasons, 14 August 2026 for the “no longer be in use as a car park” wording and the four season ticket car parks.
• Bromsgrove District Council, draft Schedule 1 for the list of parking places the order keeps, and the tariffs.
• Bromsgrove District Council, Off Street Parking Order 2026 consultation page.
• Cabinet report, disposal of Stourbridge Road car park, 3 December 2014 for the sale to Cordwell Property Group, the 0.72 acres, the £12,000 income, the marketing exercise and the three-retail-unit proposal.
• Planning committee minutes, 9 April 2026 for the deferral, the highways evidence, the £10,000 section 106 figure, the 71 spaces and the School Drive and North Bromsgrove capacity.
• Planning committee update report, 9 April 2026 for the 454 contributors, 427 objections and 26 in support.
• Planning register, application 17/01468/FUL for the 20 December 2017 receipt date, the “Awaiting decision” status and the draft legal agreement dated 29 July 2026.
• Bromsgrove District Council, our car parks for space counts and tariffs.