Dear SMBC,

Objection to the release of Green Belt for housing or other development in the so called Arden Triangle, known as Site/ Area RP39.

This is on the basis that it is not being released in 'Exceptional Circumstances' as is current Government Policy. The Housing Minister Gavin Barwell stated very clearly on BBC Radio on 7th Feb 2017 that Green Belt would "Only be released for housing in exceptional circumstances"

This is valuable, well-established green belt land with wildlife such as bats living there.

The scoring system used to rank the Green Belt around Solihull as assessed by Atkins, a worldwide Engineering company, appears to be subjective. Had CPRE assessed this Green Belt, I'm sure the results would have been very different.

In addition, there is a set of coincidences that make this land a potential candidate: these are that some, or all of the landowners are ready to profit from the land. And also that Arden Academy wants to grow considerably, producing a Super school.

Arden has had expensive investment in 4 major builds in recent years, which were all touted as being beneficial to the wider Knowle community. Further development is unlikely to be of benefit to Knowle, and will likely be detrimental, increasing road traffic and congestion.

It is accepted that housing is required, but neither of these situations create exceptional circumstances, and given the amount of Brown Field sites in the West Midlands, it seems wrong to destroy such a beautiful green site. To build on it seems to favour financial gains for some, without due consideration to the impact on local infrastructure, or the identification of other, less lucrative sites.

Additionally, Knowle as a village is struggling with parking, over-subscribed facilities such as Doctors, and the addition of hundreds of houses is not right for the Knowle community as a whole.

To quote Sajid Javid's (Department for Communities and Local Government) statement to Parliament on the recent white paper.

"First, we need to plan properly so we get the right homes built in the right places."
"Let me reassure the House that this will not entail recklessly ripping up our countryside.
In 2015 we promised the British people that the green belt was safe in our hands."

Just because Landowners want to profit and the Head of Arden wants to be a Super Head, is it right to build on good quality Green Belt and to lose community facilities like the MIND community garden?

If no one was to gain significantly financially, would a proposal to destroy this established, beautiful Green belt really have been made?