Below are the reasons I object to planning 350 more houses in dickens heath:

• Flooding - the site is flood zone 1, the area floods every single year and the drains in the area cannot cope. Every time there is heavy rainfall on Tilehouse Lane and Tythe Barn Lane the drains are overflowing with water into the roads. The last time flooding warnings were ignored, the plot on Dickens Heath road (0.25 miles away) ended up flooding the newly built houses and families had to vacate from their homes within the first year of living there. The area cannot facilitate houses and by building more you put the houses in the surrounding area at risk of flooding also.

• Green Belt - the land is high protected green belt land. The area is a habitat for natural wildlife. I have seen foxes, deer and bats on numerous occasions on my walks on Tythe Barn lane and building on these plots will disturb wildlife and take away their homes. These objections were ignored by the council when the new plot on dickens heath road was proposed however it did seriously disturb and confuse the wildlife in the area. Two times bats flew into my aunty’s home on dickens heath road when the building works began, which proves the bats were disturbed and couldn’t find their roots. The area on Tythe Barn Lane is high grade green belt for a reason, it is there to protect natural wildlife. The barn on Tythe Barn Lane has never been able to be redeveloped due to it becoming a habitat for the bats. We should not be allowed to build 350 houses only a few yards from where these protected animals live. It will lead to more street lights and lighting from houses which will effect their feeding and foraging and will lead to the needless deaths of a species that has a already declining population.

• Facilities - Whitlocks End car park was only extended a few years ago and it already can not facilitate the growing population in the local area. There are new housing plots on Tilehouse lane and Low brook lane which are less than a mile from the proposed plot. Locals in the area should not suffer from being unable to use facilities due to the council accepting ill thought out plots.

• Traffic - every morning Dickens’s heath road is overflowing with traffic during rush hour. This traffic flows up Tythe Barn Lane. The roads and village were never built for level of traffic it currently has and there are no plans to facilitate the growing population in the area. Adding another 350 houses when there are unfinished new build plots less than a mile away will make the area an incredibly inconvenient place to live.

• Sports - there are two football clubs, a rugby club and a fitbox club on the area proposed to build these new houses. Local sport, leisure and physical activity can help people to live longer, healthier lives. This makes them fundamental to achieving councils’ aspirations for their communities. In the current economic climate and in the face of national challenges such as obesity and mental health, it is vital for these sports clubs to stay in the local area.

I hope you take the objections I have raised into serious consideration.