Construction of the new leisure centre at Oak Park (Called an ‘Active Living Centre’ bizarrely enough) has come on a long way since Phil Griffin took this image last summer, but the project hasn’t been without some controversy.

Earlier today I was contacted by reader Tkevcro who was worried about construction activity around the Coppice Road/Brownhills Road junction near the new leisure centre site in Walsall Wood.

They wrote:

Hi Bob,

Activity at the junction of Brownhills Road/Lindon Road and Coppice Road where I believe I remember traffic lights where going to be put in to do with the new Oak Park.

The fencing has been taken back on the corner again and the ground is now higher than before and it seems another side lane is going to be put in for the turning? I’ve asked workmen and can’t get any answers to what they’re doing.

Tree removal at the Coppice Road junction. Image supplied by Tkevcro.

I’ve looked to see any planing permissions were put forward but can’t find anything but if this is the case then this would mean the taking down of 34 Trees on the corner alone to which I know they would have to have planning permission for as well.

I’ve taken some photos this morning as I see some operatives from isg have been cutting some of the trees down perhaps you can shed some light on it?

TKevcro

I think it’s fair to point out at this stage that Tkevcro has been a vocal opponent of the Oak Park scheme since it’s original proposal.

Yes, a signal controlled junction was approved as part of the plan with crossings incorporated; sadly, as is normal, the documentation for the traffic assessment and other original documents have expired on the planning server and are no longer online. I therefore can’t find exact details but there’s this section on the site plan I posted here in 2013:

This section of the site plan covering the Coppice Road/Brownhills Road junction is present in planning documents submitted for the new Oak Park Active Living Centre and is unchanged in revisions. I believe it to have been approved along with the new centre itself.

Planning permission certainly covered the junction improvements, and if I remember correctly some removal of trees was necessary for visibility. I believe that as normal in such cases any necessary tree removal were to be mitigated with tree planting elsewhere on site. The full plan (reposted at the foot of this article) also notes the building up of soil level and regrading across swathes of Oak Park – hence the huge mound of soil currently gathered at one side of the compound.

I’m unclear as to why the constructors need planning permission to remove trees not protected by a preservation order anyway. My understanding is that if the landowner wants to remove them, they can do so without further approval.

Since the plan will result in a safer junction, particularly with regard to pedestrian access on a route heavily used by kids from Walsall Wood who go to Shire Oak School, this can only be a good thing. I use the junction fairly often and it’s quite grim and would benefit from improvement – particularly in light of the campaign for better pedestrian crossings in the area.

The work to the junction wouldn’t be by ISG, the builders of the new centre – I suspect it would be by a specialist under the control of Walsall Council. I bet if you gave their Urban Traffic Control people a call on 01922 652590 they’d be able to help.

As far as I can see, the project seems to have been quite sensitive environmentally and I doubt trees would be removed unless necessary – and if it improves the user experience of a bad junction and enables safe pedestrian crossing of a very busy road, the benefit far outweighs the loss.

Feel free to comment or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

The job’s a long way from finished yet, but the centre itself is looking good. Here’s the approved site layout. Click for a large version, but beware, it’s a very large image.