Legal challenge bid against Ringway demolition

Campaigners believe the building is an important example of modernist architecture

Campaigners have said they have applied for a judicial review to stop a 1960s office block from being demolished.

Birmingham councillors voted in February to replace the city's Ringway Centre with three apartment blocks.

The Save Smallbrook group has argued the brutalist building should be preserved and put to new use, and believes there are grounds for the legal challenge.

It said its alternative could be delivered at "a fraction of the carbon cost" and create homes "in a fraction of the time".

The curved, six-storey office block lines Smallbrook Queensway, the road which leads to New Street Station.

The building was designed by James Roberts, best known for Birmingham's Rotunda, and campaigners argue it is one of the best examples of brutalist architecture still standing in the city.

But developers said the scheme would provide new public spaces to "revitalise the area" and attract new visitors.

Under the approved plans, a minimum of 15% of homes will be allocated for affordable housing.

Developers said the plans for 1,750 flats would revitalise the area

Save Smallbrook is a coalition made up of Brutiful Birmingham, Birmingham Modernist Society, the Twentieth Century Society, Zero Carbon House and Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign.

Its backers include local historian Carl Chinn and TV presenter Kevin McCloud.

The group said its barrister, Estelle Dehon KC, was confident it had a strong case to present to the High Court.

A film has been created, telling the story of the campaign, and it is due to have its premiere at Birmingham's Flatpack Film Festival on 11 May.