No
Draft Local Plan Review
Representation ID: 1203
Received: 08/02/2017
Respondent: Mr Christopher Freville
Object to housing site 18 as development has previously been rejected, housing will exacerbate existing traffic congestion and gridlock on weekday mornings, there will be an increased danger to families and children going to Sharmans Cross school, especially children and pedestrians, the school is already oversubscribed, and development will result in the loss of a designated sports facility which should be retained.
LDP - Proposed Housing Allocation 18
I am horrified that once again SMBC is considering a planning of application for around 100 houses on the rugby pitch off Sharmans Cross Road. This has already been rejected several times before for reasons which are well documented.
Can I remind you that the traffic heading into Solihull town centre each weekday morning is diabolical. They are queuing all the way along Streetsbrook Road as far as the junction with Prospect Lane, and they are also queuing all the way down Sharmans Cross Road from the junction with Streetsbrook Road and queuing back as far as Sharmans Cross Junior school. It can take as much as 25 minutes to do a 1 mile journey into Solihull in the mornings because of the bad traffic around Sharmans Cross Road.
Therefore whoever has the stupid idea of building another 100 houses next to Solihull Arden club / rugby pitch clearly has no idea how bad the traffic will become. Can you imagine everyone queueing to get out of the proposed site on to Sharmans Cross Road where there is already a long queue (followed by another long queue on Streetsbrook Road)? The roads will grind to a halt and be grid locked.
Furthermore, there will be an increased danger to families and children trying to reach Sharmans Cross junior school. They already park all the way down this road twice per day, and to add another 100 dwellings in the very close vicinity will only worsen the situation considerably. There will be very few places left for parents to park, and where they do park they will cause even more delays on Sharmans Cross Road with traffic trying to get past the parked cars.
I worry greatly that pedestrians and children walking down an even busier road will result in a bad accident.
Sharmans Cross Junior school is massively oversubscribed and to add another 100 houses in the catchment area will only cause more over subscription problems.
I must also point out that the rugby ground is a designated sporting facility and I understand that no building should be approved on such sporting grounds. SMBC has a statutory requirement to ensure lost pitches are replaced with equivalent facilities and accessibility.
Do not allow this proposed planning. It is completely flawed in so many ways.