I wish to make the following comments on the current version of the Local Plan:

1. There is no mention anywhere in the draft, in any context, of dog-walking facilities. A very large proportion of Solihull households include at least one dog and in addition there are working dogs employed by the Police, Fire, security and airport services. There are currently relatively few places in the urban part of the Borough where dogs can be exercised properly off-lead away from traffic: these include Elmdon Park, the Conservation Fields off Brueton Park, Dorridge Park and Langley Hall Park. Smaller public spaces open to roads do not meet the needs of many dog walkers, mainly because of the danger of, and to, traffic. Many owners therefore make otherwise avoidable car journeys from their homes simply to take the dogs somewhere they can have a decent safe walk, at least once a day. They then require parking provision at or near the park. "Country" walks are available along rural footpaths but there is hardly ever any car parking available at the beginning or end of the walk. Dog-walking and cycling are not particularly compatible as each is a nuisance to the other. The provision of adequate land for exercising dogs is relevant to a number of the Policies, especially but not exclusively, provision of housing (need to ensure that there is significant acreage of off-road, enclosed, walkable land within walking distance of new housing and also that access to such amenity land from existing housing is not compromised by the interposing of a housing estate), health and wellbeing (a daily walk with a dog has multiple health and social benefits) and climate change (providing dog walking space within walking distance from home will reduce the number of polluting car journeys).

2. Your question 7 (agree with Policy P2?): I do not believe the case for relocating the railway station to Monkspath Hall has been made. It would be an enormously expensive venture for no benefit - for instance, there is no mention of a direct train connection to Birmingham International or HS2 - and it would, rightly in my view, be seen as a vanity project. Officers have suggested that the current station is too far from and too inaccessible to the town centre but the journey from a new station at Monkspath Hall would be uphill and therefore less accessible for anyone with fitness issues, buggies, luggage etc. It would also inevitably entail losing part of Tudor Grange Park and much of Monkspath Hall car park. (Despite the insistence of officers that there is oversupply of car parking in the town centre, the views expressed to me by the general public are very much to the contrary).

3. Your questions 15 and 16. I have already emailed my comments on your site ref. 16 "East of Solihull". In case these have been lost, I reiterate: this site is in Green Belt and:

The staggered junctions of Yew Tree Lane, Hampton Lane, Marsh Lane and the Solihull Bypass cause significant traffic congestion (with concomitant noise and air pollution and delays to journeys) particularly back along Hampton Lane towards Catherine de Barnes, and not only at peak times. Traffic congestion along Damson Parkway/Yew Tree Lane will probably be exacerbated by the opening of the JLR logistics operation and flow through Hampton Lane is likely to increase with the development of UK Central. A housing development opening out on to any of the adjoining roads could only make matters much worse. Some of the land earmarked is used for children's sports and the football pitches, the need for which would increase with the influx of new families, would be lost.

I suggest the alternative proposal of developing instead land to the south of Catherine de Barnes, along and between Henwood Lane, Berry Hall Lane and Ravenshaw Lane. Not much mention is made in the draft Local Plan of Catherine de Barnes. This settlement already has some community infrastructure in the shape of a village hall, pub, shop, restaurant and some small businesses. The village could be enlarged into a sustainable settlement with the addition of a school and health centre if there were sufficient new homes. Upgrading Ravenshaw Lane to provide direct access on to the A41 Solihull Bypass near Junction 5 of the M42 would actually alleviate some of the existing congestion along Hampton Lane. This proposal has the added advantage of preserving the green space between Damson Parkway, Lugtrout Lane, Field Lane and Hampton Lane as a buffer against urban spread.


4. Finally, re Policy P15: there is an increasing trend towards enclosing residential properties with high iron railings. Many of these, notably along St Bernard's Road and Dovehouse Lane have made the properties look unpleasantly like compounds: they have a forbidding look and are obviously designed to exclude. They all detract from the relaxed, traditional, friendly street scene that contributes to Solihull's attractiveness as a place to live and are absolutely out of character with the atmosphere of the Borough. It would assist planners in refusing planning applications for more of these if policies on design could include emphasis on retaining more traditional boundary treatments and specifically on discouraging the erection of railings where none previously existed.