Where is Thrive?

Thrive is a 124-hectare site located to the north of Curdworth in North Warwickshire and sits beside the administrative boundary of Birmingham. The site is in private ownership and is currently designated as Green Belt.

Junction 9 of the M42 lies to the south-east of the site and the M6 Toll motorway forms the eastern boundary. The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal borders the southern edge, with Over Green and Wishaw villages to the north.

Thrive is in the M42 corridor, a focus for economic growth. The site benefits from excellent access to the strategic road network and the nearby rail freight terminals at Hams Hall and Birch Coppice. It also enjoys proximity to major labour markets across the West Midlands and Warwickshire.

These factors have attracted significant investment to the local area, including at the established and emerging employment sites at Peddimore, Hams Hall, and Prologis Park Midpoint.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Employment Sites and Rail Freight Terminals
	Birmingham Administrative Boundary
	Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Towpath
	Railway Station
	Railway Line

An Urgent Need for Strategic Employment Sites

Warwickshire and the West Midlands host world-leading businesses in several growing sectors. Advanced manufacturing, logistics, future mobility, and life sciences all find a home here.

The West Midlands "Plan for Growth" seeks to nurture these sectors by prioritising support for eight "primary clusters". These include specific forms of advanced manufacturing and logistics. However, a lack of available strategic employment land is constraining these growth ambitions.

info The map shows the current employment sites and allocations near to Thrive.

There is an urgent need to identify and deliver new strategic land to meet the requirements of modern businesses. There are no deliverable brownfield sites of strategic scale able to meet these requirements in North Warwickshire, or in the wider M42 corridor.

Recent public sector studies have recognised this shortfall in land:

• The West Midlands Strategic Employment Sites Study (WMSESS) (2021) concluded that the M42 corridor had less than 1 years' supply of strategic employment land at 2019 (71ha).
• The 2022 Coventry & Warwickshire Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) identified a need for an additional 735 hectares of strategic logistics land to be provided in the sub-region up until 2050.

The NWBC Local Plan includes Policy LP6 to enable delivery of strategic employment. This is on the condition that "immediate need" can be demonstrated. NWBC has committed to prepare an "Employment Development Plan Document". This will identify and allocate strategic employment sites if a need can be demonstrated.

We intend to promote Thrive as a sustainable allocation through this document in 2024.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Nearby Employment Sites & Allocations
	Railway Station
	Railway Line

Our Vision for Thrive

Thrive is an ambitious and innovative proposal to create a “next-generation” campus for manufacturing, logistics, and high-growth businesses. It will appeal to local entrepreneurs, growing businesses, and larger companies seeking a prime location in the centre of the UK.

info Click on the map markers to see photos illustrating our key principles for Thrive, and to see an artist's sketch of how these principles come together.

Thrive's scale offers a unique flexibility and versatility, meeting the needs of small/medium enterprises (SMEs) all the way to large occupiers. The site will provide a unique opportunity for co-location of these businesses.

We want to deliver:

• An employment campus set within a high-quality landscape where businesses can start, grow, and thrive.
• A place to drive economic growth and improve environmental and social outcomes, across Warwickshire and the West Midlands.
• Innovative and sustainable buildings (in a range of sizes), landscaping and public realm which prioritise health and wellbeing , and create opportunities for interaction, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
• Biodiversity net gain through habitat creation, and green space and wetlands which are accessible to all.
• Improved public transport and active travel infrastructure, which is integrated with surrounding communities.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Click to see artist's sketch
	Railway Station
	Railway Line
	Key Principles of Our Vision

Creating Sustainable Connections

Thrive provides an opportunity to improve sustainable travel in an area currently lacking in such facilities. We want to provide an employment campus that embraces new technology and public transport.

Our vision will prioritise the healthy active travel modes of walking and cycling. We will provide a comprehensive network of safe and attractive active travel routes throughout Thrive. This will require the diversion of existing Public Rights of Way crossing the site.

Thrive will transform local pedestrian and cycle facilities, improving links to Curdworth, Water Orton, Minworth, Walmley and the proposed Langley Sustainable Urban Extension.

info Toggle the checkboxes below and zoom into the map to view approximate, current walking and cycling times from Thrive.

The campus' design will revolve around a central mobility hub. From here, employees and visitors will have access to frequent scheduled bus services. These bus routes would link to local rail stations and larger communities. We intend to make these connections available to villages across North Warwickshire as well.

info Toggle the checkbox below to view all nearby bus routes to Thrive.

The campus will cater for electric vehicles and we want the mobility hub to provide e-bike and scooter parking spaces. This would integrate with existing Birmingham rental schemes. We intend to adopt the approach of Birmingham City Council's adjoining Green Travel District (GTD) when considering these improvements. The GTD initiative aims to put people before cars ensuring that residents, workers and visitors have more opportunities to walk, wheel, cycle and take public transport.

This will mean not only focusing on providing improved site access, but also delivering strategic transport benefits for all those travelling to, from and through the area. As such, your feedback is important in shaping the final proposals.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Railway Station
	Railway Line
	Green Travel District
	Public Right of Way
	Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Towpath
	Peddimore On-Site Pedestrian/Cycle Routes
	Peddimore Permissive Paths
	National Cycle Network
	Regional Cycle Network
	Local Cycle Network
	Bus Services - toggle the checkbox above to view
	67 Bus Service Birmingham - Castle Vale
	67A Bus Service Peddimore Extension
	71 Bus Service Chelmsley Wood - Sutton Coldfield
	71A Bus Service Peddimore Extension
	76 Bus Service Tamworth - Sutton Coldfield
	77A Bus Service Walsall - Erdington
	96 Bus Service Chelmsley Wood - Kingstanding

Vehicular Access & Highways Infrastructure

Sustainable travel is key for employees and visitors. Operational traffic, however, requires easy access to strategic roads, like the A38 and M42. This will minimise the impact on local communities and other road users but is also a key occupier requirement.

We intend to focus vehicular access on the A446 Lichfield Road. This would be via a new signalised junction at Dunton Lane to the east which would provide the site's principal point of access.

info Click on the map markers to view more information about potential highway infrastructure improvements.

We have started to consider the possible impact of development traffic on Curdworth, Wishaw and Over Green. As a result, no vehicular access to the site is proposed to the west via Wishaw Lane. This access will be restricted to pedestrians, cyclists, buses, and emergency services. The lightly-used Blindpit Lane will therefore need to be closed to vehicular traffic.

We know that the A446 is a busy route. Other junctions along this corridor could also require improvement. We have undertaken preliminary work using Warwickshire County Council's traffic model. This has indicated that some junctions that may require mitigation works. These include Bassetts Pole Island, Grove Lane, the Belfry Island, and M42 J9.

Further assessment work is required to confirm what mitigation these junctions need. In the meantime, we would value your views on other local traffic 'hot spots'.

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	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Railway Station
	Railway Line
	Access via Dunton Lane
	Improvement Required
	Further Assessment Required

Climate, Carbon & Nature
Beyond Compliance

We are committed to providing high-quality landscaping, green space, and habitat creation. Together, these will deliver environmental benefits for people, society, and the natural world. Thrive aims to work beyond the mandated standards for environmental issues.

A key focus is to understand how our proposals can contribute towards:

• wellbeing and recreation
• water management and natural processes
• managing carbon
• wildlife and habitats

We understand the connections between these areas of focus. Our aim is to develop a place that jointly addresses carbon sequestration, visual amenity, biodiversity gain, community use, and education and wellbeing.

info Click on the map markers to see how these priorities come together into one vision.

We will assess the loss of agricultural land and the impact of development, balancing its use for food production with all the benefits Thrive will deliver, including biodiversity enhancements.

We will look for ways to contribute to county-wide biodiversity restoration goals, such as Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's 30 by 30 project. We will deliver an employment park that provides biodiversity net gain. Thrive will support the COP 15 target to manage 30% of habitats in a nature-positive way by 2030.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Thrive Site Location
	Railway Station
	Railway Line
	Climate, Carbon & Nature Priorities

Constraints & Opportunities

From our early site assessment work, we have identified key environmental constraints and opportunities which will influence how we deliver Thrive on the ground.

Constraints include veteran trees along Blindpit Lane, Public Rights of Way crossing the site, and residential properties and listed buildings close to the site boundaries. We will retain the veteran trees, and divert the existing public rights of way to connect into a comprehensive network of safe and attractive routes. We will also introduce extensive areas of landscaping on the boundaries, particularly to the west to create a green buffer with Over Green.

info Zoom into the map to see these constraints and opportunities in more detail, and click on the map markers to find out more.

Key opportunities include the site's excellent access to the strategic road network and ability to connect to the national grid via the electricity cables which cross the site. There are additional opportunities for the local community to help shape the vision for Thrive including the ability to enhance integration with the canal, and introduce a large wetland habitat area to the east.

We would welcome your views and insight on local constraints and opportunities. We would like to hear about any other factors you feel will be important to consider for Thrive.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Thrive Site Location
	Railway Station
	Railway Line
	Public Right of Way
	Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Towpath
	Blindpit Lane
	Access via Dunton Lane
	Overhead Cables
	Listed Building
	Neighbouring Residential Building
	Neighbouring Residential Area
	Landscaped Green Buffer to the West
	Veteran Trees to be Retained
	Wetland Habitat Creation
	Enhanced Canal Interaction

Technical Work to Support Our Planning Application

We are intending to submit a planning application for Thrive to NWBC in 2024. This application will include details of a first phase of development, including internal site roads, strategic landscaping, and other critical infrastructure.

It will also outline plans for the remainder of the site, to enable detailed planning applications for individual buildings and other facilities to come forward.

info Click on the map marker to find out more.

A thorough set of documents and technical studies will support the planning application. These will cover all issues that could be relevant to development of the site. This will include a formal Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out in accordance with the relevant legislation.

The key issues covered by our technical work will include:

• Planning policy
• Socio-economic factors
• Landscape and visual
• Archaeology and built heritage
• Transport and highways
• Air quality
• Noise and vibration
• Flood risk and drainage
• Agricultural land assessment
• Ecology
• Utilities
• Sustainability, climate and energy

We will report back to the local community on the status of this work as part of our future engagement in Spring 2024.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Find Out More
	Railway Station
	Railway Line

Community Benefits

We are committed to ensuring that the development offers benefits to local communities as well as the people working at Thrive.

We have started to build an understanding of opportunities and challenges in the local area which will help to inform how we design the development as well as develop a strategy that can maximise social value for all.

We have reviewed published data on a wide range of socio-economic indicators. This has included looking at local infrastructure provision, the ambitions captured in local strategies and policy, as well as engagement with younger residents in the area.

info Click on the map markers to see existing community facilities in the area.

The Curdworth Neighbourhood Plan describes the strengths of the local community, its economy, and its services. It also identifies aims to enhance existing recreational facilities and open spaces. This includes the provision of more footpaths and recreational cycling routes. We are keen to explore how Thrive can support healthy living through a mixture of new infrastructure, facilities, and initiatives.

We also recognise the ambition of local partners to enable greater social mobility and help more vulnerable residents in accessing employment.

We are committed to delivering opportunity by working with education, industry, voluntary, and charity groups, to offer improved life chances through routes into or back to employment. We are particularly interested in working with future tenants to help local people into higher-skilled, higher-value jobs.

Your insight will help us develop a vision that supports the needs of the wider community.

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Click to view our Steps to Realising Social Value
	Existing Community Facilities
	Public Right of Way
	Railway Station
	Railway Line

Share Your Thoughts & Insight

This consultation is now closed, but you are still welcome to provide comments and suggestions via our online survey.

Thank you for taking the time to read our vision for Thrive. We would now love to hear from you. The comments we receive will help shape our plans for Thrive.

info Click on the button below to answer the survey, or click on the Thrive icon on the map.

Next steps & in-person events:

This first stage of consultation will end on Friday 22nd December 2023.

We will report back to the local community in Spring 2024 in a second stage of consultation. In this second stage, we will present more detailed plans and explain how we have taken local feedback from this first stage of consultation on board.

IM Properties are holding three public events this year. At these, you can speak to our team about our vision and share your ideas in-person.

These events are free for anyone to attend and will be held on:

• Thursday 23rd November 4pm-8pm at Wishaw Golf Club
• Saturday 25th November 9:30am-1:30pm at St. Nicholas Church Hall, Curdworth
• Wednesday 29th November 4:30pm-8pm at Middleton Village Hall

Further contact:

In addition to answering the survey above, and attending our in-person events, you can get in touch by:

Telephone: 03308 384 199
Email: info@thrivepark.co.uk
Write to us: IM Properties, c/o Camargue, 11 Waterloo Street, Birmingham, B2 5TB

Map Key

	Illustrative Site Boundary
	Click to answer the survey
	Railway Station
	Railway Line

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