Below are the reasons I object to planning 350 more houses in dickens heath site BL1:

• Flooding - the site is classed as flood zone 1, however 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 by Solihull council, 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. This area is of bolder clay that restricts permeability. Given the fact that a sustainable urban drainage (SUD) system is proposed, proves the unsustainability of this site when other “Amber” sites have far less constraints.

• Green Belt - the land is high performing green belt area. The area is a habitat for natural wildlife. I personally 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. Bats are protected animals and it is illegal to disturb their habitat. We should not be allowed to build 350 houses only a few yards from where these animals live. It will lead to more street lights and lighting from houses which will affect their feeding and foraging and will lead to the needless deaths of a species that has a already declining population. There has been no bat survey report nor any mitigation plan/method statement into planning application. Site BL1 is a Green Belt area, which has not been taken into consideration in the Sustainability Appraisal. Central Government Policy is to protect the Green Belt and develop on Brownfield land first.


• Facilities - Solihull Heath Partnership is at breaking point and the move to telephone / video consultations has highlighted this (all evidence re this is available locally). I have not been able to book a much-needed doctors appointment for over a month due to the waiting times over the phone. The council is already failing it's current constituents with the lack of services, why put added pressure to this issue by adding a further 350 homes to the local area. As you are aware configuring a new GP surgery or expanding existing ones would be , if even possible a lengthy process. This would mean the health of all in this area would be significantly compromised and who is going to take responsibility for this?
Additional to this, Whitlocks End car park was only extended a few years ago and it already cannot 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. The Traffic Study does propose some works to improve the congestion in peak hours but the situation will be further exacerbated by the huge number of new homes proposed in the area and South Shirley. The Council only propose to solve the Village Centre parking problem by controlling some on-street parking which will not solve the existing problem and will only be made worse with more development. The narrow, rural road network cannot take further development and is already overloaded.

• 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. Yes the fields can be relocated but at some upheaval to the clubs and members, so why move them in the first place?

• Not in keeping with the character of the Village - This proposed development of 350 houses will be un-associated, both visually and physically, with the award-winning Village of Dickens Heath. The character and setting of the Village will be adversely affected and sense of community and identity compromised. There are strong, definable boundaries to the existing Village being the canal and the woodlands and ancient hedgerows.

• Proposals are not legal - The proposed development is not within a recognised walking distance from the Village Centre facilities, so further adds to the un-sustainability of the development. The Council state that a new footpath will be needed to the private road of Birchy Close to reduce the walking distance but this is legally unachievable. A suggested new bus route down Birchy Leasowes Lane could be provided but a bus physically cannot exit the junction with Dickens Heath Road safely. At this junction the ancient woodland either side of this junction would inhibit any road improvement which has not been recommended.

• Unsustainable - The Sustainability Appraisal tries to prove that this Site is sustainable when it clearly is not, owing to the numerous mitigation measures proposed to try and make it sustainable, some of which are unachievable. Over 39% of the 15,000 homes proposed in Solihull is based in Dickens Heath and Cheswick Green. There has been no consideration for the upheaval these mitigation measures such as road closures will have on the residents who already have to deal with so much traffic due to the many new housing estates continually being built in the area.