proposed housing allocation 18

I live at Beaminster Road, having moved here with my young family in the past year.

I am very alarmed to hear about the proposed housing allocation 18 for 100 houses on Sharmans Cross Road.

I strongly object to this proposal for the following reasons:

1. Increased Traffic
The roads around the proposed site are already struggling to cope with current traffic levels, and will not cope with further traffic, both construction and then ongoing increased traffic from the new houses (this could be over 200 cars if 100 houses are built!).
It is impossible to turn right from Sharmans Cross Road and Dorchester Road onto Streetsbrook Road at most times of day, and the tailback of traffic into Solihull along Streetsbrook Road is often slow and extending way past Sharmans Cross Road. I have witnessed accidents at these junctions, and fear an increase volume of traffic will increase the risk of further accidents. My oldest child is at Sharmans Cross School, and despite having crossing attendants, the danger for children as they walk to school and cross surrounding roads (even with their parents) is already higher than a lot of other Solihull primary schools. Increasing the traffic volume so close to this school will put these still very young children (often with even younger siblings on a tight time frame to get to and from the two nearby linked infant schools on time) at even greater risk I feel.

2. Loss of sporting facilities
My older children are members of Arden tennis club, and play tennis here with lots of friends from local schools. My youngest attends music classes here. The facilities serve our local community very well, getting children involved in more sports that are not offered everywhere (for example squash). I feel the playing fields next to the courts could also be utilised by the local community for sporting and other leisure events. I understand that several local groups have tried to use the grounds and would support this in the future. I realise the plans include relocating some of the facilities but it is my view the whole site should be maintained for local recreation. Once it has been developed the decision can not be reversed at what I feel would be a big loss to the local area.

3. Children's Safety.
As mentioned above, I feel a construction site followed by increased traffic will put local children's safety at risk. As over the next few years we face our children reaching the scary transition from being dropped at school to making their own way, we chose Beaminster Road because we felt it offers as safe an area as possible for them to do this. However I fear for their safety (both with an adult and as they start to walk alone) with the increase in traffic proposed, and the access roads for this large development being bottle necks onto already busy road systems.

4. Increased pressure on local resources.
As a local school governor, and a GP, I am fully aware of the pressure on local amenities. As I understand, no increased capacity is being made for health or education provisions in our area, so I am concerned that our already busy schools and Health care will not be able to cope with up to 100 families moving into the area.

I appreciate there is a need for new housing in Solihull, but I feel this site is completely unsuitable. I ask that you reject this site as a proposal.

I ask you confirm receipt of my objection before 17 February 2017.

Yours faithfully