The development of site 3 Windmill Lane would create the narrowest point of the Meriden Gap and therefore it is difficult to understand why the site is being included. The council has also assessed the sustainability of the site and it scores very poorly (9 negatives and only 2 positives), not least because it stretches so far out from the village boundary that residents would need to drive to the village shops, the medical centre, the train station and the primary school.

The only additional access point onto the road network from the site would be onto Windmill Lane opposite Hob Lane (unless new residents were expected to access their homes through the Meer Stones Road estate). This would result in drivers from 280 dwellings (including Meer Stones Road residents) trying to access the road network from two points south of the village, Kenilworth Road and Windmill Lane, increasing congestion in the village centre as many commuters attempt to access the motorway network north of the village.

Based on land conditions encountered in the surrounding area it is likely that the construction of new homes in this area would require pile driving. The impact of such relentless noise and vibrations on residents during the building process would be indescribable.

The area is rich in wildlife - owls, red kites, woodpeckers, deer, hawks, numerous insects, bats, amphibians and the protected Great Crested Newts, to name but a few and development of the site would destroy the habitat and feeding grounds for these creatures.

Construction work in the area and any subsequent increase in traffic flow would have an adverse impact on our Grade 2* Listed Berkswell Windmill.

The proposal to build medium density housing in the site, with no "green buffer" to preserve any of the visual amenity currently enjoyed by residents does not respect the local character of housing in this locality nor the people who currently live there.

Balsall Common residents are already under significant stress from the impact of HS2. The poorly conceived housing development south of the village, the unnecessary bypass to the east of the village and the moving of the Green Belt boundary would all cut away a further great swathe of our open countryside forever.

I would urge the council to seriously look at the alternative proposal of building a new settlement to the north of Balsall Common nearer the motorway network, instead of imposing any significant level of new housing on the village itself, which is already clearly 'bursting at the seams'.