The Jewellery Quarter has a history of change from housing to workshops, luxury ‘gaffer’ houses then with workshops at the back, then in the 1970’s dereliction, especially some parts of St Pauls Square, to a whole new era for the Jewellery Quarter of development and restoration.
This month seems to be changing even more, with the controversial planning application to change the top floor of the Vyse Street Car park with associated loss of parking spaces to an Urban farm and garden getting planning permission, the closing down of Frank Joiners, owners are retiring after over 25 years running the store – we wish them well in their retirement, the almost unnoticed name change of the Big Peg (formerly The Hockley Centre) to the JQ Modern, I could go on.
The loss of parking spaces in the Car Park I hope will be offset with better on-street parking systems, because quite frankly the pay and display machines not only don’t work in most cases but in the JQ’s conservation area are quite frankly an eyesore.
At government level there are moves to make on street parking easier. A new National Parking Platform has been proposed, which would enable motorists use an app of their choice to pay for parking (so if one app is not available you can use another) and get on with the working (or visiting) day.
Mark
