Objection to South Shirley Site 13
Solihull Councils current consultation proposing 600 additional homes on the South Shirley Site 13 adjacent to the Woodlands & Badgers Estate
I wish to raise an objection and voice my concern to the proposed housing site.
As a child growing up in Shirley and now as a parent of two young children, this is an area that I have used regularly for recreation purposes. The walkway from Bills Lane is our access point, and from here we can access the fields behind Langcomb Road and the Woodlands estate. It is a beautiful place to walk and get away from traffic, and an opportunity to see lots of wildlife - particularly birds. The area is extensively used by local residents to walk, walk their dogs, and also to join onto the canal tow path.
The loss of this area would greatly sadden me, and many others. The loss of green belt land which would see the already narrow gap between Shirley and Dickens Heath once again diminished.
Over the years Shirley has become heavily built up, and open space areas for the public to use for recreation purposes are very limited.
As I understand, this particular area of land was actually designated as an area of public amenity and was fenced off accordingly.
I would also like to raise concerns about the current levels of traffic. At 9am there is no easy access to the Stratford Rd and onwards, Tanworth Lane is already loaded with traffic. More houses, more people - the implications for added traffic are alarming.
And what about schools, my eldest (5 years old) is fortunate to attend Woodlands School, a wonderful small community school. Where will the additional children go? Woodlands is a feeder school for Shirley Heath, as is Blossomfield which has a already had to grow into a 3 form entry to cater for all the children. Looking ahead 7 years, where will all these extra children find secondary school provision?
Another concern would be Healthcare provision, more doctors surgeries would surely be required? Solihull Hospital is slowly being made smaller and smaller, whilst the population gets bigger and bigger.
In summary, l accept (but do not agree) that Solihull council have by charged by central government with finding new housing sites. However I feel very strongly that it would be wrong to build on the area of public amenity land and its access corridor that is currently fenced off and request that this area is retained for the benefit of existing and future local residents. The large amount of development being concentrated in the countryside and loss of Green Belt in the Shirley area is unacceptable.