Please find below our thoughts on the draft housing plan.

We do not believe that 1350 more houses be built in Balsall Common. The area has already been subject to substantial development over recent years including developments, as we speak, on the Kenilworth Road. It cannot be said, therefore, that people in the area have not been accommodating to new development. However, we do object to the unnecessary destruction of unspoilt Greenbelt land in Balsall Common, in particular to any further development of the Kenilworth Road/Windmill Lane "triangle".

Windmill Lane is on the outer reaches of Balsall Common - we cannot see how road traffic can be managed from this end of the village for people to access facilities - road traffic will increase as people use the facilities in the village/railway station/schools as realistically it's too far for people to walk - we commute into Birmingham every day from Windmill Lane and it's a 25 minute walk to the station at a quick pace (people are time short in the morning and with a heavy commute and walk the other end of their journey to places of work there is not time to do this walk; every second is precious on long commutes and working days) - so Councils need to be realistic in their thinking and not put the onus on people for being lazy when in fact the car is essential to busy lives. The increase in traffic, therefore, from the over-development of Balsall Common, in particular Windmill Lane, in our opinion, will not be able to be 'managed' and will cause traffic problems to an already congested area. Parking at the railway station will become even more of a problem - there is not enough space as it is and unless you are an early morning commuter you have no chance of parking later in the day on the car park - hence the long line of cars already being parked opposite the medical centre.

The centre of Balsall Common (which is in dire need of improvement) is already very congested with cars and the parking there is hazardous with drivers reversing in and out of spaces and often there are near misses with cars almost colliding with each other; the danger will further increase, if the proposed development on Windmill Lane were to go ahead, as again, for the reasons stated above, people will drive to the shops causing even further congestion.

We do not believe that 800 houses should be built on Barretts Farm - this amount of development will require major infrastructure changes to accommodate more families - for example, there is already a good medical centre in Balsall Common but it is a very busy centre. From newspaper articles to news bulletins we are constantly hearing of the crisis in the NHS and the shortages of General Practitioners (GPs). Will it be that simple to expand the medical centre and for them to recruit more GPs to accommodate the amount of people that will be living in the village in the coming years if the proposed developments take place? Already GPs are under a lot of pressure and these concerns do not appear to be at the top of any developers list. Pressure will also be put on schools to accommodate more pupils - the roads near to the schools are already heavily congested in the morning and afternoons and we are at a point now where driving is extremely difficult as parents parking their cars outside the schools effectively block off one side of the road with no gaps left for cars to even pull-into causing deadlock and very uncomfortable driving conditions.

If development has to take place, we believe that brownfield sites should be prioritised over greenfield. There are brownfield options, including on the north side of the village, in particular the site behind the George in the Tree is bigger than "the triangle", more accessible and enclosed by existing roads.

We hope you will take our objections into consideration.