I wish to express my very strong objection to the proposed plans of 700 dwellings on a 41 hectare site to the West of Dickens Heath. Allocation 4.

The area concerned is green belt land which will be completely eroded to the Bromsgrove District border. This will result in there being no green belt buffer between the two council areas creating an urban sprawl. Building on the green belt should only be allowed 'in exceptional circumstances'. Under the government white paper it states " Green Belt boundaries should be amended only in exceptional circumstances when local authorities can demonstrate that they have fully examined all other reasonable options for meeting their identified housing requirements" I do not believe the further expansion of Dickens Heath to be 'exceptional circumstances' as there are numerous options yet to be explored. I also understand that the borough is to take an additional 2000 houses overspill from the Birmingham allocation. This seems unreasonable as there are numerous brownfield sites as well as public spaces and unused public buildings that should be considered first.

There will be a loss of ancient woodland, historic hedgerows, wildlife habitat and diverse ecosystems that can normally be found in such an area of green space. The loss of trees having a significant impact on air quality. Leisure facilities used by the community are also under threat.
The distance of the planned build from Dickens Heath village centre will encourage residents to use nearer facilities in neighbouring council areas and of course utilise their roads and infrastructure.

Majors Green has already taken a significant amount of additional traffic from the extension of Whitlocks End railway station car park. Those who cannot get in the car park are currently parking in our small roads and pavements in Majors Green. The planned further expansion of the car park is based on current useage, and this will encourage more cars to use the car park and subsequently more traffic through our 'village'.
We are currently struggling with the amount of traffic coming along Haslucks Green Road. The dangerous bend in Majors Green has seen over 30 accidents in 18 months. The recent addition of coloured tarmac is already buckling under the amount of cars using the road. Haslucks Green Road and surrounding roads are country lanes, they were not designed as a race through/cut through for fast cars from major urban developments. An additional 700 houses could mean an extra 1400 cars looking for a quick route out of Dickens Heath along roads across the boundary in Bromsgrove. There seems to be an encouragement by Solihull Council to direct traffic away from Dickens Heath village and on to surrounding country lanes, the majority of which travel down Tilehouse Lane and then Haslucks Green Road.
Surely encouragement should be given for people to walk to the station, provide proper wide footpaths and adequate safe street lighting instead of further polluting our countryside on a short journey to the station
Further building in Dickens Heath West will be detrimental to the area and put an intolerable strain on the already struggling doctors surgeries and schools.

Flooding will be an issue. Majors Green is regularly 'cut off' when we have heavy rain with flooding in Tilehouse Lane, Haslucks Green Road & Aqueduct Road. Further building will only exacerbate this situation

In summary, whilst we understand there is a need for more housing please give serious consideration to alternative sites such as those on the list of 'call for sites' submissions and Blythe Valley/M42 corridor. The plan appears disproportionate with 41% of the housing planned for 4 sites which neighbour our community. Having lived in Majors Green for 31 years we have seen and embraced many changes. We have invested in the local community and use the facilities that are currently under threat. Please do not take away the green space we enjoy regularly as walkers and for leisure. This will significantly impact on our quality of life. Please protect our green belt and the semi rural aspect of our area. To quote Bill Bryson , previous President of Campaign to Protect Rural England, "our countryside is the world's largest park .. all we have to do is look after it"...