Proposed Development - Allocation13

I am writing to object to the proposed development. You are in no doubt familiar with many of the arguments put forward against these plans, officers from the council having attended a number of public consultation events. For the record, I would like to outline my particular concerns.

There is no doubt that traffic congestion will increase. At "rush hour" it is almost impossible to turn onto Bills Lane from Langcomb Road. What studies have the council commissioned to monitor the traffic flow and, more importantly, what measures will be put in place to reduce the impact of more traffic?

The shortage of affordable housing makes the news on a regular basis. While some greenbelt land could be used for development, the emphasis should be placed on recommissioning brown field sites. Surely your planning department will have attempted to secure the services of a forward thinking and innovative architects who will not only design modern, comfortable housing that will have good environmentally friendly credentials, but will take the opportunity to make urban dwelling more attractive. Or is it the case that green belt sites are just an easier proposition, requiring less ground preparation?

I use Shirley rail station on a regular basis, and parking places are at a premium. This impacts on the surrounding streets where commuters are now parking during the day. (Sometimes Neville Road is almost impassable). What extra parking provision has been put in place to service the needs of extra commuters? It would make sense to place a new development nearer to the site of the proposed HS2 terminal. This would mean that the anticipated influx of commuters would be able to walk to the high speed link instead of having to make an unnecessary car/bus journey before accessing the H2S hub.

There follows the attendant problem of additional pressures being placed public services. It should be noted that the Accident and Emergency department at Solihull Hospital has been downgraded. Instead of expanding the existing services in preparation for the inevitable population increase, the solution appears to take ambulant patients to The Queen Elizabeth or Heartlands hospitals on even more congested roads. This is far from satisfactory.

Haslucks Green Road between Bills Lane and The Drawbridge public house is prone to flooding. There have been a number of accidents where vehicles have left the road due to wet conditions. If Allocation 13 goes ahead, won't this mean that "run off" from paved surfaces will ultimately run downhill to this portion of road? What assurances do we have that this building activity will not exacerbate an already serious problem?

No one can predict the future. The terms of Brexit have yet to be hammered out and economic growth and the money supply have been miscalculated by the BOE and other institutions. Most of the properties in the development will be starter homes. In the catastrophic event that interest rates return to their usual levels of 4-6% and there was a contraction in the jobs market post Brexit, this might pose a number of problems. The scenario that I am concerned with is if the project is started but the money supply slows, this might leave unfinished builds in various stages of completion. This is what happened in Ireland following the banking crisis. The result is that there are still unfinished housing estates ten years after the event. These ghost estates are attractive to squatters, the travelling community and provide easy pickings for contraband building material. What guarantee that it will be the developer's, and not Solihull Council tax payers, that will pick up the bill for site security if such a scenario plays out?