Ladywood
Ladywood is a housing area of variable quality, with some local shopping and social facilities and an environment that could benefit from significant improvement.
The area falls significantly short against a number of urban design criteria:
- streets and spaces are not overlooked
- back gardens are exposed, leading to a perception of insecurity
- there is no sense of enclosure
- some of the spaces have a left-over and poorly maintained feel
- the area is inward-looking and not easy to navigate
Close to the city centre and adjacent to the canal, Ladywood could be a very desirable place to live.
The newest development has taken place on the canalside. Mainly privately-owned apartments that turn their backs to the rest of the Ladywood estate and restrict access to the canal by residents of that estate.
This area presents a great opportunity for major transformation into a successful neighbourhood with a strong community focus. The quality of the housing can be significantly improved along with the configuration of open space.
The Icknield Port Loop area, immediately to the west of Ladywood, is being developed as a sustainable urban neighbourhood of mixed housing types and tenures with the canal loop as its focus
Aligning housing, planning and education policy and projects within Ladywood gives us the opportunity to create a properly functioning neighbourhood.
