A BLUEPRINT for the next 25 years in Halesowen town centre is hoping to bring back the glory days of the High Street before 1960s planners fouled everything up.

A public consultation to help formulate the plan revealed people are harking back to times before Halesowen had multi-storey concrete car parks and drunken youngsters hanging around.

Councillors were presented the Halesowen Area Action Plan at the Halesowen Area Committee last week at Earls High School. Dudley Council’s director of the urban environment John Millar said: “The plan will provide a vision for what we want to achieve in the Town Centre by 2026, and through its policies and site allocations, it will set out how that vision will be delivered.”

The 25-year-plan aims to ensure new retail investment should be in the town centre whilst ensuring any developments will be environmentally friendly. Mr Millar explained another objective would be: “A return towards pre-1960s town character – finer grain, narrower scale and character of frontages but avoiding pastiche, making sympathetic use of new design ideas and materials, and respecting the past while embracing contemporary development.

He added: “Another objective would be improving and adding to the evening and night-time economy though not adding to the younger adult drinking culture, and any new development close to the River Stour should enhance the river, improve access to and along it, and guard against flood risk.”

Other objectives in the plan include: - Protecting and improving wildlife habitats and the network of green spaces; - Improving the quality and quantity of the public realm which includes better streets, paving and green open spaces, trees and landscaping, street furniture, signage and art.

- Improving pedestrian links around St John’s church and incorporating the church more into the town through social and cultural events.

The Halesowen Area Action Plan will be published in April 2011 then sent to the Government for approval before being shown to the public, it should then be formally adopted by Dudley Council in 2012.