I write regarding the Balsall Common sites.The two in the south are one and a half miles from the Doctors surgery and railway and not convenient for local shops. Brownfield sites should be utilised before green fields.
I would also question the points awarded to Balsall Common for local transport which is not frequent and not up to the standard of other areas. The facilities in Balsall Common of course need improvement but for instance the shops and car parking are severely restricted. I would add that eschelon parking must be preferable to the present dangerous 90 degree parking.
Congestion on the roads is recognised as severe in the Solihull Connected document. Parking along a main road during school hours for 300 yards is one example of this. The majority of traffic goes north therefore placing developments in the south of the settlement simply aggravates the situation.
Sally and David Bell
I write following a large gathering of objectors at the Balsall Common Parish Coucil Meeting last night. The largest attendance for years objecting to the Frog Lane proposal but also including the Kenilworth Road proposal as it is equally remote and unsustainable, equally badly served by public transport and also an area recognised for the traffic congestion in the Solihull Connected document.

I have always said that residents in Balsall Common will be prepared to take their fair share of the pain of new houses despite having had around 800 already in the last 20 years but it must be fair and we must have now an allocation of substantial funds maybe to the extent of taking all CIl money, if needed, to ensure this expanded village is not ruined.

Now we have the suggested three sites. Barretts Farm has merit if a linear park and a new school ,all weather pitch,and bypass come with it.
The other two sites you will have heard plenty of arguments against but basically they are too remote and move the greenbelt in the wrong direction.

We need now better parking. The 90 degree parking is a nightmare. We need now more car parking spaces. The car park for the station is always full and spills out up Hall meadow Road every day

We need a new primary school as the existing one built for 150 is now up to 700 and needs scaling back to alleviate the chaos at 8.30 and 3.00. A new two form school might be the answer.

The Kenilworth road already experiences higher volumes of traffic following JLRs acquisition of the old Honiley Air Field. There is talk of the number of employees here rising to 3000. The lorries serving them are massive. Further up the Kenilworth road is the quarry site where 1000s of tons of material come and go every day. HS2 construction starts soon to add to the congestion. New building sites in Balsall Common should be postponed either till after HS2 construction or until a relief road or bypass is in situ.

The shopping area is desperately in need of improvement. Sadly we missed in the end the opportunity to acquire the old office building that will forever now be a carbuncle.

I am worried that in the rush for house sites that the appropriate infrastructure that frankly should have been forthcoming years ago will be once again sidelined partly because there is so much else to do. As a ward councillor and resident I feel that I must shout loudly from the start to ensure this does not happen.

David Bell