I wish to register my objection to the proposed development at Allocation 13 in Shirley.

I strongly object to your plans on the grounds of loss of GREENBELT land, loss of amenity land for local people and loss of rich local wildlife.

I find it completely disproportionate that circa 41% of Solihull's additional housing needs should be concentrated in the Shirley South area. We know that more houses are needed but they need to be far more evenly allocated. I suggest that Solihull Council examines this aspect closely and re-visits the potential of other areas in the Borough that can absorb this volume of homes.

We have already been subjected to additional developments, including Cheswick Place off Tanworth Lane and further developments extending Dickens Heath and Tidbury Green, yet nothing has been done by the Council to improve local facilities and infrastructure to accommodate a vast increase of people moving into the area.

I commute via Dickens Heath to the M42 along Tanworth Lane and Dog Kennel Lane each morning and the traffic is already congested each morning without the addition of yet more new homes. These roads will need some serious improvements in order to cope with yet more traffic coming through the area, especially at rush hour. The Shirley area is already subject to a huge amount of congestion, which affects the whole of the Stratford Road from the M42 junction and all arterial routes, including Dog Kennel Lane, Tanworth Lane, Shakespeare Drive, Blackford Lane, Haslucks Green Road and Bills Lane. In addition, the main route out of Dickens Heath to the Miller and Carter Restaurant is a constant queue of traffic each morning.

The impact of yet more homes in this area will have a huge detrimental effect on the road network, let alone local services such as schools and doctors' surgeries. The school's in this area are already at full capacity, so I would be interested to know your plans for relieving pressure on these schools. Will you be building new schools? Will you be extending the existing schools?

The local rail stations are also not fit for purpose for this amount of extra homes, being very small and not large enough to serve the additional requirements of these large scale developments. There is already inadequate parking at Whitlocks End, Shirley, Earlswood and Solihull Stations.

Most importantly, this is also designated GREENBELT land. Greenbelt means an area of open land around a city, on which building is restricted yet you choose to ignore this!

The close proximity of this GREENBELT land to homes in the area, I know is a strong reason why homeowners chose to purchase their properties here - to enjoy the beautiful countryside on our doorstep. Why should you be allowed to take this away and concrete over beautiful rich, green land? I'm sure there are plenty of brownfield sites in the borough that are in desperate need of regeneration and could be redeveloped on instead to preserve this beautiful piece of GREENBELT land. Building on this GREENBELT land will mean it's beauty will be lost forever for the local community if your plans go ahead.

This GREENBELT land separates an already high density housing area. I, along with my friends and family, use this area extensively for much valued healthy walking exercise and enjoying the huge variety of wildlife, including owls, foxes, bats, birds of many species and more. The area is also used extensively by dog walkers and ramblers and I worry that you are not considering the impact the loss of this will have on the local community. Development of this GREENBELT land will ensure that all recreational land between Shirley and the M42 will be practically lost making the area a mass urban sprawl instead. Do you not value your local countryside?

Your plans also state that this new housing allocation should be developed to complement current and new infrastructure - in this case HS2. Well in fact HS2 will be running to the North of the borough and not stopping anywhere near to the proposed developments in Shirley. In fact we are surely positioned in one of the worst areas in the borough for actually getting to the new proposed station.

I strongly hope that you are taking the views of the local people into consideration before going ahead with this ill-advised plan for Allocation 13. One area of such a large borough should not be expected to absorb almost half of the housing needs for the borough, and especially not at the expense of GREENBELT land.