{"id":78901,"date":"2020-07-08T09:39:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=78901"},"modified":"2020-07-08T09:39:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:39:30","slug":"icknield-port-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using Advanced Manufacturing in Construction (AMC)<\/h2>\n<p>Work to breathe new life into brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop, close to the heart of Birmingham is being accelerated following a \u00a34m investment by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmca.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">West Midlands Combined Authority<\/a> (WMCA).<\/p>\n<p>The funding paves the way for developers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urbansplash.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Urban Splash<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.placesforpeople.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Places for People<\/a> to build a further 138 homes using cutting edge construction technology.<\/p>\n<p>At least 20% of these homes will be affordable under the WMCA\u2019s unique definition of affordability.<\/p>\n<p>The WMCA, led by Mayor Andy Street, is committed to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/grass-greener-brownfield-site\/61996\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brownfield-first approach<\/a> to housing, which sees derelict industrial sites cleaned up while precious greenbelt land is protected.<\/p>\n<h3>Pioneering brownfield remediation<\/h3>\n<p>Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: \u201cOne of my key priorities since becoming Mayor has been to been build more homes to meet demand, whilst also protecting precious greenbelt land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore the coronavirus outbreak we were building record numbers of homes, and doing so on old, derelict, industrial sites, thanks to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/modular-construction-news\/new-homes-mmc\/73218\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brownfield-first approach<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow housebuilding has an even more important role to play in the West Midlands. Not only do we still need to reach our target of 215,000 new homes by 2031 \u2013 protecting greenbelt land in the process \u2013 but we now need housebuilding and the wider construction sector to help re-boot our regional economy following the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government appears to be behind our plans, and last week wrote us a cheque for \u00a384m to continue our pioneering brownfield remediation work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIcknield Port Loop is a prime example of what we are trying to achieve here in the West Midlands, and I am delighted to see this new waterside community come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Advanced Manufacturing in Construction<\/h3>\n<p>Components for many of the new homes at Port Loop, which will efficiently be part of a new 1,150 home waterside neighbourhood, are being built offsite in factory conditions using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/modular-construction-news\/advanced-manufacture-in-construction\/76704\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Advanced Manufacturing in Construction<\/a> (AMC).<\/p>\n<p>AMC allows entire building sections, complete with insulation, fitted plumbing, electrics and finishes to be manufactured off-site and installed more quickly and with less waste.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, ten homes were craned in and assembled at Port Loop in just four days with social distancing in place.<\/p>\n<p>Councillor Mike Bird, WMCA portfolio holder for housing and land and leader of Walsall Council, commented: \u201cHaving been awarded three Structural Timber Awards, a Sunday Times British Homes Award and the prestigious Housing Design Award, the quality of these new homes shows us just how good AMC can be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re proud that alongside design and construction excellence, we can offer 20% of the homes as affordable housing, under the WMCA\u2019s own locally determined definition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the project results in is a shining example of the sort of housing developments on derelict industrial land that will help us secure a green and inclusive economic recovery for the West Midlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are doing this through making homes more sustainable and affordable whilst also providing jobs, training courses and apprenticeships for local people to get the skills needed to work in the advanced manufacturing in construction sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark Farmer, chair of the WMCA AMC advisory panel, added: \u201cThe announcement of this funding deal demonstrates the clear commitment that WMCA has towards not just delivering more high quality housing in the West Midlands but in driving forward its ambitious AMC agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUrban Splash are at the forefront of housing design and production innovation and through their MoU with WMCA both parties are now leading the way in modernising how we build new homes in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Port Loop development<\/h3>\n<p>The pioneering Port Loop development is being delivered by a joint venture partnership of Urban Splash and Places for People, alongside the landowners <a href=\"https:\/\/canalrivertrust.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canal &amp; River Trust<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birmingham.gov.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Birmingham City Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on behalf of the joint venture partners, project director Adam Willets, commented: \u201cInnovative and forward-thinking construction methods are helping us create a sustainable new community at Port Loop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been working alongside architects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shedkm.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ShedKM<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glennhowells.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Glenn Howells<\/a> to create a diverse housing offering, with typologies which have been designed with internal layouts that provide flexible space for residents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing sustainable modular construction technology enables us to spend more time on developing quality inside and outside spaces for a growing city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When completed, Icknield Port Loop will include more than 1,000 homes over 43 acres and new spaces for walking and cycling along the Old Line canal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mk-custom-module-container\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using Advanced Manufacturing in Construction (AMC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[942],"tags":[734,676,464,572,916,627,696,669],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-78901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","7":"tag-brownfield","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-contributor-profile","10":"tag-housebuilding","11":"tag-modern-methods-of-construction","12":"tag-modular-construction","13":"tag-offsite-construction","14":"tag-regeneration"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using AMC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using MMC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planning, Building &amp; Construction Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/\u00a34m-investment-to-transform-Icknield-Port-Loop.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"606\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steph Blundell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using MMC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steph Blundell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb\"},\"headline\":\"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\"},\"wordCount\":752,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Brownfield\",\"Construction Processes\",\"Contributor Profile\",\"Housebuilding\",\"Modern Methods of Construction\",\"Modular Construction\",\"Offsite Construction\",\"Regeneration\"],\"articleSection\":[\"MMC News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\",\"name\":\"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using AMC\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Planning, Building &amp; Construction Today\",\"description\":\"The Latest Planning, Building &amp; Construction News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\",\"alternateName\":\"PBC Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/PBC_Today\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb\",\"name\":\"Steph Blundell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62283f53e7b9ae55cd3516832342b97ce87c86f2c2130dfce68124d194b36df8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62283f53e7b9ae55cd3516832342b97ce87c86f2c2130dfce68124d194b36df8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Steph Blundell\"},\"description\":\"Steph is the Senior Digital Editor here at PBC. When she\u2019s not working hard on cranking out first-class content for our online viewers to enjoy, she\u2019s keeping our social media lively and up to date\u2026 you could call her a social media guru? We\u2019re sure she\u2019d like that. With a BA in English and Journalism, Steph isn\u2019t fazed by attention to detail; on the contrary, she enjoys getting her teeth into a good article. In her downtime Steph loves nothing more than getting together with friends to enjoy a few (several) gin and tonics. Think you\u2019ve got some content Steph would be interested in? You can contact her either by phone on (01270) 502876 or by email at sblundell@pbctoday.co.uk\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/steph-blundell\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/author\/stephblundell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop","description":"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using AMC","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop","og_description":"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using MMC","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/","og_site_name":"Planning, Building &amp; Construction Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/","article_published_time":"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":606,"url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/\u00a34m-investment-to-transform-Icknield-Port-Loop.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steph Blundell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop","twitter_description":"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using MMC","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday","twitter_site":"@PBC_Today","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/"},"author":{"name":"Steph Blundell","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb"},"headline":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop","datePublished":"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/"},"wordCount":752,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Brownfield","Construction Processes","Contributor Profile","Housebuilding","Modern Methods of Construction","Modular Construction","Offsite Construction","Regeneration"],"articleSection":["MMC News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/","name":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-07-08T08:39:30+00:00","description":"\u00a34m investment announced to clean up and unlock brownfield land at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston which will allow for a further 138 homes using AMC","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/mmc-news\/icknield-port-loop\/78901\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u00a34m investment to transform Icknield Port Loop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/","name":"Planning, Building &amp; Construction Today","description":"The Latest Planning, Building &amp; Construction News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization","name":"Planning, Building & Construction Today","alternateName":"PBC Today","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Planning, Building & Construction Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/","https:\/\/x.com\/PBC_Today"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb","name":"Steph Blundell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62283f53e7b9ae55cd3516832342b97ce87c86f2c2130dfce68124d194b36df8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62283f53e7b9ae55cd3516832342b97ce87c86f2c2130dfce68124d194b36df8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Steph Blundell"},"description":"Steph is the Senior Digital Editor here at PBC. When she\u2019s not working hard on cranking out first-class content for our online viewers to enjoy, she\u2019s keeping our social media lively and up to date\u2026 you could call her a social media guru? We\u2019re sure she\u2019d like that. With a BA in English and Journalism, Steph isn\u2019t fazed by attention to detail; on the contrary, she enjoys getting her teeth into a good article. In her downtime Steph loves nothing more than getting together with friends to enjoy a few (several) gin and tonics. Think you\u2019ve got some content Steph would be interested in? You can contact her either by phone on (01270) 502876 or by email at sblundell@pbctoday.co.uk","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/steph-blundell\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday"],"url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/author\/stephblundell\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-13 16:57:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78901"},{"taxonomy":"stakeholder_rel_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stakeholder_rel_tag?post=78901"},{"taxonomy":"contributor_rel_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor_rel_tag?post=78901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}