As a resident on the edge of Dickens Heath village, I feel I must join my voice, yet again, with the many others in protest at the plans for unreasonable development in the area. As I see the large numbers of complainants, I can hardly believe that Solihull continuously persist in their onward rush to flood the area with housing development in view of the serious ecological, transport, sociological and infrastructure issues which Solihull seem to be trying to sweep under the carpet:
•Firstly, Site 4 (BL1) is in a high performing Green Belt area, which has not been taken into consideration in the Sustainability Appraisal Central Government Policy which is there to protect Green Belt and develop Brownfield sites first.
•The Sustainability Appraisal tries to prove that this site is sustainable, but the proposed mitigation measures which would need to be taken clearly prove that it is NOT, since many are unachievable. I do not believe that the Authority carried out a proper sustainability study before any sites were investigated; it appears the sites were decided on first, and sustainability studies made to fit the decisions.
•When we moved here in 2012 the facilities offered by Dickens Heath Village were very attractive; the setting, sense of community, convenient shops, library brought us here, particularly since my wife is in a wheelchair and getting around the village was convenient. Since the village has become a “rat run” for the developments in Tidbury Green, getting around the village has become a nightmare, I’ve witnessed some serious issues of road rage by the “village green” where large numbers of cars are parked on what has become a through road. This can only be severely aggravated by developments on Tythe Barn Lane. As residents, we were asked a few years ago to suggest parking restrictions in the village – I advocated yellow lines along the Dickens Heath Road straight through the village. Apparently, the police like a few parked cars scattered around to slow the traffic flow.
•Flooding has been a big issue in this area, leading to the need for piling for new housing; various attempts to cope with the surface water have not been entirely successful, and since this will be an increasing problem, it would cause severe problems for the future.
•The proposed developments will not be associated physically with the village, being outside the natural barriers – those needing to shop in Main Street will need to use cars, adding to the congestion. The original plans for the village stipulated a maximum distance of 10 mins walk to the shops, this will now no longer hold true. I understand there will be moves to create a new footpath leading into Birchy Close, where I live, making access from the new developments to the village; I believe this to be legally unachievable since Birchy Close is a private road owned by all residents. I, for one, will oppose this.
•The sports fields can be re-located, but why do it? It will cause disruption, not only to members of the clubs, but to wildlife.
•There are suggestions for a new bus route down Birchy Leasowes Lane – exit points at either end will be impossible for buses! At the Dickens Heath Road junction, the ancient woodland would inhibit any attempts to open out the junction’s visibility.
•It seems to me that an inevitable re-purposing of Tythe Barn Lane will eventually take place; a rebuilding of the old canal bridge, widening of the road right through to Norton Lane; turning the area into a huge area of housing needing surgeries, schools, shopping centres, and vast amounts of infrastructure, obliterating any of the green.
As you will see, I feel very strongly that Solihull are wilfully ploughing ahead with developments which will be disfiguring the area and causing huge ecological and physical problems for the area.