Designation of the Merry Hill regional shopping centre as strategic centre in Dudley, UK

Abstract

This paper aimed to examine how Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) designed the Merry Hill regional shopping centre as a sort of town centre in its development plan. In 1995, Dudley MBC gave permission for the planning application of the extension of the Merry Hill regional shopping centre. But, following the Secretary of State's calling-in, the Merry Hill extension application was rejected in 1997. While Dudley MBC failed to design the Merry Hill centre as town centre in its development plan in 2005, Merry Hill was defined as the strategic centre at the top of shopping hierarchy in the latest development plan published by four Black Country Authorities in 2011. It seems that Dudley MBC prefers to get the economic profit of shopping centre rather than sustaining its traditional town centre, although Dudley can control the extension of Merry Hill centre within its planning system.