APPROVAL: Sustainable Urban Farm for the JQ

Plans to turn the upper two levels (5 & 6) of Vyse Street car park into a sustainable urban farm have won the backing of Birmingham City Council’s planning committee.

Campaign group Slow Food Birmingham and Urban Design Hub are free to reanimate an underutilised, nondescript grey space into a unique and productive green one.

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The aim of the farm is to champion local producers and food businesses and help to support the wants and needs of the local economy and people with a fresher, tastier, and more sustainable alternative to the major supermarkets.

Spread over two phases the project will include glasshouses for vertical growing, a non-odour emitting mushroom farm, plant beds, bee-keeping facilities, a community garden, an events space, three wind turbines, and a biodiversity centre with a café.

All goods to and from the site will even be delivered via electric cargo bikes and electric vans/milk floats.

“We hope that the project will foster valuable conversations about the city’s food system and create a model for change, championing hyper-local food production and education", Slow Food said earlier in the year.

Councillors unaminously approved the project with the consensus being that the initiative “will provide social, economic, and environmental benefits to the local community."

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Vyse Street farm, images from Urban Design Hub.