Solihull Local Plan – Draft Submission Plan

Proposed Allocation Site:BL3 – Whitlocks End Farm.




The Current Draft Submission Plan shows plans for 300 houses. This would be built on green belt. The current owner of this site has previously applied for the site to be re categorised as brown field to enable the whole of Woods Farm to be re-developed.

On the Opus Consult document it shows potential planning of 300 houses however in the Solihull Local Plan Concept Master Plan 2020, (page 57) it shows the possibility of 1000 homes over the whole of the woods farm site.

Both of these sites would be off Bill’s Lane, an already a busy thoroughfare for cars from Wythall, Majors Green, Tidbury Green and I am sure many others. By adding to the already busy road, pollution would increase tenfold.

300 homes would produce 600 cars, as most families have two cars each, 1000 homes would produce 2000+ cars Bill’s Lanes would be unable to cope with this increase and would be dangerous to current residents and future.

The type of housing being build would be car users not public transport users, and there is currently no public transport on Bill’s Lane.

By building the 300 homes on greenbelt this would be an open gateway to sneak in the extra 700 homes that the owner would like.

With the1000 homes there would be a loss of the bridleway & footpaths. An amenity that is enjoyed by many (more now than ever with the current conditions). The basis of this comment is that the urbanisation of Dickens Heath has also removed public footpaths. One is unable to walk from one side of Dickens Heath to the other without Winding through the maze of roads, not a pleasant experience when walking breathing in all the fumes.

The loss of Trees that either of these developments would obliterate, will never be replaced by the proposed tree planting on the old site 13. To use the advertising spiel of the owner of woods farm, Every Acre of Christmas Trees grown produces the daily oxygen requirement for 16 people. A hectare of Christmas trees will absorb 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The potential for the damage to the environment is Hugh by the increased road traffic and the loss of such a valuable resource. In the past the owner of Woods Farms has advertised that he is growing in excess of a million trees in any one time. How do the Council plan to replace all these trees?

In Both circumstances the building on green belt would lose the identity of Shirley and it would become another metropolis of Birmingham, there would be no distinction between Shirley, Hall Green and Dickens Heath.

The Council still not has addressed the concerns of the residents of Shirley that Shirley is taking the lions share of the building that Solihull has to address. There is a lot of land in Solihull that could be considered, which I highlighted in my previous correspondence.