Plans for new visitor centre and café at The Leasowes

Exciting plans for a new visitor centre, café and play area, which will help boost the visitor experience at the stunning Grade I listed Leasowes, have been submitted to planners.

Dudley Council, with the support of the Friends of the Leasowes, has lodged plans for a new single-story visitor, education and café facility to sit on the footprint of the existing play area, with a new play area with wooden equipment to be installed in the current picnic area.

If approved the next step is for the council and the friends’ group to source external funding for the development.

The visitor centre will have a green roof and inside will be a senior warden’s office, toilet facilities, meeting room, café plus outdoor seating.

The existing Portacabin will be demolished and the space returned to carparking.

The plans follow a visitor survey last year where feedback focused on the lack of a quality play area and visitor facilities, which restricted the time families visited the site for.

The proposals have also had extensive input from the Friends of the Leasowes, who along with other key stakeholders within in the Leasowes Green Gateway Group have championed for such a facility.

Councillor Damian Corfield, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said: “Leasowes is one of our borough’s most treasured historic landscapes and these exciting proposals will ensure more people can enjoy their visit even more.

“We know from the Leasowes Green Gateway Group and visitor feedback that families want better facilities, including a quality play area and somewhere to relax and enjoy refreshments during their visit.

"Our aim is to enhance the visitor experience. These plans would deliver a modern visitor centre with café, education and community space, alongside a new natural play area designed to complement the unique character of Leasowes.”

As well as being Grade I listed, Leasowes with its diverse landscape of wooded valleys, open grasslands, lakes and streams, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is also where you can find the Grade II listed Leasowes Walled Garden, owned and managed by Halesowen Abbey Trust.

Designed by the poet William Shenstone between 1743 and 1763 it is one of the most important and influential landscapes of the 18th Century and is considered to be one of the first natural landscape gardens in England.

Councillor Simon Phipps, cabinet member for economy and infrastructure, added: “If the planning application is approved, it will put us in a stronger position to attract the external funding needed to deliver this exciting project.

“These improvements would encourage more people to explore Leasowes and spend longer there enjoying this outstanding historic landscape with its spectacular unique heritage and natural environment.”