Solihull Local Plan Review 2017 Proposed Housing Allocation 13

Dear Council Members
I am contacting you to register my alarm and dismay concerning the draft local plan for the proposed Housing Allocation 13 South of Shirley. I am pleased and impressed that even though you are not bound by requirement to consult with local residents that the opportunity is available to us. I also hope that you are sincere when you state that will listen to the strength of feeling and very real concerns that we have about the use of Allocation 13.
Firstly let me say that I acknowledge the growing need for new affordable housing and recognise obligation that Solihull MBC has to provide additional housing under current requirements. However I have strong objections concerning the proposals for the use of the land you have named Area 13 which I will expand upon.
The loss of this public amenity area would be a catastrophic loss for the residents of the local area. Local residents are using the field from 6.30 in the morning to 11:00 at night, I aware of this as my house is opposite the access gate. The use of Allocation 13 is varied people walk, run and exercise their dogs. We are encouraged daily from various sources to take exercise as it's important to healthy minds as well as healthy bodies. I regularly walk in the fields with friends and family members because it is a beautiful area and I have never been to the fields and not met another local resident walking and enjoying this spot. Local wildlife I have seen and heard includes cuckoos, voles, moles, bats, newts and muntjac deer. In your own leaflet 'Reviewing the Plan for Solihull's Future' it states that you want to maximise the benefit of HS2 whilst protecting our environment. Planning to build houses in Area 13 does not do this. As it stands currently Shirley does not have a good provision of open space and parkland. If Allocation 13 was built upon this would mean the loss of not just greenbelt fields but the loss of an open green space that is used and held in the hearts of the local people. I can't press this point enough. In addition under the government white paper "Fixing our broken housing market" 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 would press the planning department to look again at possible brownfield sites in the borough.
Living opposite the fields I would like to mention the very real surface water we experience year round on the grassed areas and in our gardens. I understand this is due to the local water table and the soil we have which has a high clay component. Further development would only exacerbate this existing problem.
Earlier in my comments I stated that I understand that there is a need for housing in the Solihull borough to this end I would ask that the new housing is not ie 41% centred on just the Shirley area. This would put further strain on the local infrastructure particularly the transport system around the four sites outlined for Shirley which would all feed into the same routes. This would increase travel delays, congestion and standing traffic at peak times which would exponentially increase the production of greenhouse gases and further impact on the environment.
In the Draft Local Plan the council asks for residents views to help Solihull to 'grow and develop into the place we would like it to be. ' Building on all four sites planned for south Shirley especially Allocation 13 I feel goes against this stated aim.
I wish for my objections and those of the many others that have contacted you in connection to Allocation 13 to be considered when the next version of the plan is produced.