The parishes of Cheswick Green, Dickens Heath and Tidbury Green, the "Blythe Villages," have taken substantial development under past Plans, notably the Dickens Heath new village, constructed in the last 15 years and 1,000 dwellings at Blythe Valley. It is estimated that this area has taken a further 2,000 dwellings over the past 5 years but the roads, services and infrastructure have not been upgraded to accommodate this growth. Yes, we need more houses but they should be the right type and in the right place. With no new employment areas proposed in the Local Plan and little existing local employment, residents have to drive to their work, which is predominantly located to the east of the Borough, causing commuter chaos in this area along rural roads that were not designed for such volumes of traffic. This is an unsustainable situation now without the additional proposed developments exacerbating this situation.
it should be noted that Solihull Council fought hard to stop some of thesemajor developments over the past 5 years which include Mount Dairy Farm at Cheswick Green, the CLEOBURY Lane and Braggs Farm sites at Dickens Heath and the two sites at Tidbury Green currently under construction being Lowbrook Farm and Tidbury Green Farm, totalling some 800 dwellings. These were all won on Appeal because of the calculations of increased housing need. The reasons that the Council gave to contest these developments at these Appeal hearings still apply to the proposed housing sites in the Local Plan.
Most of the playing fields (sports clubs) west of DH are still under threat, including the extensive Old Yardleins RFC. Only Shirley Town FC opposite Whitlock's End station and the small football field just east of it are retained. The 'sports hub' that was in Richborough Estates proposal on the land north of Tythe Barn Lane, of 2016, is not proposed - that was contrary to Green Belt policy. It is not clear where the playing fields are to go to. Sport England (the Government's Sports Quango) has a policy to protect playing fields and did oppose the Solihull Plan Site 4 proposals in comments in 2017. Loss of sports grounds/recreation areas for 9 clubs which is contrary to Government Policy.
2) The traffic situation is really bad as shown by photos taken by Cllr Hawkins and now some by John Green. Site 4 would add to these. The rat-running through Tythe Barn Lane and part of DH village is mainly by people from the large and populous Wythall Parish (Drakes Cross, Hollywood, etc) who work in Solihull, Blythe Valley Business Park, etc. Extra people/traffic will exacerbate congestion through the Dickens Heath Village, on the A34 and surrounding roads especially at peak times. This is not being addressed by SMBC and the new Local Plan does not seem to realise the scale of this problem (or even that it exists).
3) Adverse impacts of developing this Site 4 for housing would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of providing houses near a railway station when there are other sites in the Solihull area that are of a lower grade of Green Belt with lesser adverse impacts and are in a more sustainable location. The Council's sustainability analysis should be bought into question as when I carried out the sustainability test, in accordance with Government guidelines see https://thescorecard.org.uk/ the test for Site 4 came out as only 30% sustainable.
4) Impact on the function of high performing Green Belt status of land will be lost which is contrary to Government Policy; there would be coalescence between Dickens Heath, Whitlock End, Majors Green and Bromsgrove District.
5) There would be added demands on already crowded local rail services and inadequate parking at the station and Village centre.
The award winning design & concept of Dickens Heath is of a new village surrounded by Green Belt with no part more than 800 m / 10 mins walk from village centre being 1.27km away - Site 4 housing proposals are beyond this circle. Any proposals to make a footpath onto Birchy Close would be strongly resisted by the residents. Therefore the location of Site 4 is unsustainable: not linked to Dickens Heath (no physical connection by road or cycleway or footpath) and outside the 800 m circle from the village centre. There are existing natural boundaries to the Village - canal to east and north, line of woodland (Ancient woodland, LNR) on west side and this proposal will be out on a limb detracting from the character of the Village.
7) Impact on landscape character; within an area of high sensitivity.
8) Tithe Barn Wood is a most significant Ancient Woodland in Solihull south of main urban area. The ancient woodland is likely to require a suitable semi-natural buffer which, together with the ancient hedgerows, will reduce the areas of development.