£8m masterplan to boost visitors to Sandwell Valley ‘paused’ over ‘unrealistic’ income targets
A ten-year £8m plan to boost visitor numbers at Sandwell Valley Country Park has been ‘paused’ because it used ‘unrealistic’ income targets.
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Sandwell Council revealed its ‘masterplan’ for the 1,800-acre site in 2024 with work that included a new pavilion, an improved visitor centre for weddings and events, a watersports centre, a history and heritage zone and a food education barn.
The Black Country authority said the aim was to increase visitors to Sandwell Valley to 200,000 a year and host more large-scale outdoor events.
However, council bosses say the work has now been “paused” so it can be re-evaluated after it was built on “over-embellished” income targets.
The council’s decision to put the huge masterplan on the back burner was revealed at a budget scrutiny meeting on Thursday (January 23).
Ben Percival, assistant director at Sandwell Council, told the meeting: “We are pausing the implementation because that masterplan was based on income assumptions that were found out to be not accurate.
“To be clear, we’ve not in any way cancelled the plan or anything like that, we are however pausing while we take the opportunity to review, particularly the commercial performance, to make sure the assumptions are valid and where they are not that we make sure we treat as appropriate.”
Alan Lunt, the council’s director for place, said many targets were being reviewed as they needed to be “challenging but achievable.”
Cllr Elen Fenton, chair of the budget scrutiny board, said councillors had been assured many times the targets were achievable.
“A lot of time, and work, and money, went into [tourism website] Visit Sandwell. Are they monitored considering they were going to be the drive for the challenged, and it was challenged, revenue streams that we were assured were achievable on multiple occasions. Is it being utilised well? Is it something that needs to be looked at?”
Cllr Ashley Lewis added: “What I’m picking up here is there was an overembellishment on income targets which wasn’t based on any factual information.”
The plans for Sandwell Valley included splitting the park into six ‘zones’ – with each promoted as a different ‘day out’ to visitors. The work includes repairs to the park’s visitor centre, a new retractable roof for weddings and events and a bigger cafe and shop.
A new watersports centre and cafe would replace the current building at Swan Pool. Cycle hire would return to Sandwell Valley alongside e-bike charging points, according to the plan, and the mini golf course could also be improved or upgraded to an adventure golf course.
The original cabinet decision in March last year split the work into three phrases with the year up to March 2025 seeing £3.3m work to Sandwell Valley Visitor Centre, King George V Pavilion and Forge Mill Farm as well as a new £150,000 land train to transport visitors. The second £2.7m phase included work at Swan Pool and the third and final phase in 2026/27 boasted a £1.75m food education barn at Forge Mill Farm.
The play barn at Forge Mill Farm was refurbished and opened in the summer and while “going well” the council said it had been forced to revise its plans after it also was based on overinflated income targets.
