Subject: LDP - Proposed Housing Allocation Site 18

Site 18 - Sharman's Cross Road (capacity 100)

Please register my strong objection to the LDP including the site of the former Rugby ground in Sharmans Cross road. It is an entirely inappropriate site for the many reasons I list below. These have in the past meant that the site has been firmly rejected several times as being unsuitable for housing development.
I live in Sharmans Cross road, and the impact of any development here will adversely affect the character and amenities of the area.

My top 5 objections are:

* The sports field is protected by a covenant for its use for sporting purposes only. There exists an all party policy agreed in 2013 to maintain the sports ground only covenant and not sell the freehold. Therefore it is inexplicable to me that this field has been included in the draft LDP. This is one of the few remaining sports fields in the local area, which is desperately short of them - my sons in the past have had to travel out of the area as local sports teams have had to find their 'home' grounds elsewhere.
I therefore demand that the council honour the all party policy agreed in 2013 and remove this site from the plan.

* The sports field is important for wildlife. The locality is fortunate to have the ancient woodland of Pow Grove which provides a varied wildlife habitat, and the sports field provides an important and complementary supporting buffer zone. Without this, its very existence and viability is threatened.

* Development of this site would cause a significant increase in traffic volumes and associated traffic pollution.
During morning and evening rush hours, Sharmans Cross road is gridlocked at both ends (Streetsbrook road and Danford lane).
The queues are so long they frequently overlap outside my house, making entrance and exit at these times difficult, and causing significant air pollution.
The traffic generated by an extra 100 households will exacerbate an already unacceptable situation.

* Parking on the high density proposed will be cramped, there is likely to be an increase on street parking in Sharmans cross road, especially as Solihull Arden club will also lose 75 or so parking spaces. Sharmans Cross road is already chaotic during rush hour and school arrival/departure times.

* The density of the development will be significantly out of character with the neighbouring areas. It is entirely inappropriate as it will be 4 or 5 times density of existing housing.

Finally, the draft plan is very misleading in the way it describes the site, stating '......a previous planning application was refused solely because the proposals did not provide sufficient affordable housing, thus indicating that the principle for the development was considered acceptable'
This is not the case - there were many reasons for the site being regarded as unsuitable and in no way did the refusal indicate that the site was in principle acceptable.
Quite the opposite in fact.

Please consider my objections seriously and take this inappropriate site out of the plan permanently.