Campaigners lose bid to save Brutalist building

The Save Smallbrook campaign wants to stop the demolition of the Ringway Centre, a six-storey building in Birmingham city centre.

Campaigners have lost their latest bid for a judicial review of plans to knock down a distinctive 1960s office block.

The Save Smallbrook campaign wants to stop the demolition of the Ringway Centre, a curved six-storey building on Smallbrook Queensway in Birmingham city centre.

The High Court on Tuesday refused the group’s bid for a judicial review of plans for the site, which would see the building replaced by three apartment blocks.

Save Smallbrook said in a statement that “we are disappointed, but this is just a setback”, and vowed to continue campaigning.

The group did not give further details on what the next steps of its campaign would involve.

Tuesday’s oral hearing at the High Court followed a previous rejection by the same court in June. The purpose of the oral hearing was to ask for a reconsideration.

Birmingham City Council's planning committee last year approved plans for Commercial Estates Group (CEG), a developer, to build the flats.

At the time, James Shimwell, head of residential development at CEG, said the proposals would "revitalise the area".

The Save Smallbrook campaign, a coalition of organisations such as Birmingham Modernist Society and Brutiful Birmingham, said the Brutalist building could be repurposed rather than demolished.