Put simply the road system can't currently cope at times with existing demand on Dog Kennel Lane and so if this scheme is to go ahead it will need a significant re-think about traffic flows and the use of sustainable transport because at present both rail and road are too far away from this site to be considered 'close'. My preference would be for this site not to be developed at all.

The BL2 site poses a number of challenges that will exasperate existing issues within the area.

Firstly, the current volume of traffic in the week day morning peak emanating from Dickens Heath towards the Stratford Road and M42 often means that a state of gridlock exists especially for residents needing to access Dog Kennel Lane via Tanworth Lane. This can add anything up to 30 minutes onto a journey that should take less than 5 minutes. This is coupled with other traffic utilising Dog Kennel Lane to access the Village Gym and Hotel complex and the residential care home.

The addition of multiple new access points on Dog Kennel Lane will only exasperate this problem in addition to putting further road traffic onto the Stratford Road, itself an extremely congested key artery. Shirley in general suffers from extremely acute traffic issues and its unclear from the proposals aside from vague statements about infrastructure improvement as to what would be done to alleviate this. It is also worth noting that Shirley, in particular on the Stratford Road and Dog Kennel lane suffers from repeated instances of anti-social driving and noise with little in the way of enforcement or deterrent.

Furthermore the statement about Whitlocks End Railway station providing a sustainable transport option is misleading. Whitlocks End Station represents a circa 30 minute walk (45 mins to Shirley Station) from this area which, given the distance will inevitably result in a large proportion of new users driving to the station vice walking counteracting any environmental benefit. Coupled with this, Whitlocks End Station consistently reaches peak capacity before 09:00 (Shirley by circa 07:30) meaning again the attraction of using the train is diminished.

The vast increase in retirement homes along the Stratford Road in addition to proposals such as BL2 and BL3 fail to take into account the lack of general infrastructure, including shops, restaurants, sports facilities and so forth which further enhances traffic in order for people in these areas to access such facilities.

Finally, and in a general point regarding education, there is no information provided as to whether local Secondary Schools (Light Hall being key) have sufficient capacity to cater for additional future demand. It stands to reason that if additional Primary schools are required that it must also follow that additional provision is provided for education after this point.