Solihull Local Plan (Draft Submission) 2020

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to invest in schools’ provision for the whole settlement, to pay back the community for the disruption from HS2 and accepting significant growth in housing in the settlement. The plan should include an exercise to evaluate a full range of infrastructure options, (using a best practice approach e.g. HMT Better Business Case approach) starting with all the relevant strategies and policies and evaluating the individual infrastructure needs for the area and developing options for how those could be best delivered overall, e.g. looking at all gaps in provision, for schools, local community centre and, sports facilities and play areas, as identified in the Solihull Infrastructure Delivery Plan published alongside the local plan. We have previously (2016) set out an option that would provide a strategic approach to infrastructure that we believe will deliver greater social value.

Soundness
The local plan correctly identifies the need for more school places (both primary and secondary) and infrastructure as a result of the new housing developments. However, it is not sound because:
1. It fails to evidence a full range of options for school provision over the long-term have bene assessed, considering only a single option for incremental provisions and, therefore, it cannot be proven that the proposals meet the stated vision to promote and deliver best social value (a key building block you state in defining inclusive economic growth).
2. It cannot be proven, as providers have not been consulted on the detail of the plans, that existing schools would be willing or able (without an impact on existing provision) to increase places until new infrastructure is built and, therefore, the plan does not meet its objective to “Work with stakeholders and partners in infrastructure delivery…”
3. The chosen option will exacerbate structural issues with all of the current school infrastructure serving the settlement and does not meet the objective of providing “sufficient and appropriate physical, social and green infrastructure to support inclusive growth for new and existing communities”. All of the existing schools are old, cold, energy hungry, costly to maintain, on sites that are cramped and negatively impact on their neighbours due to parking, congestion and pollution.

For Reference: our points relate to these key parts of the Vision and Objectives set for the plan.
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Challenge O – Providing infrastructure and securing developer contributions:
• Providing sufficient and appropriate physical, social and green infrastructure to support inclusive growth for new and existing communities
• Objectives
• Set out strategic and local infrastructure needs in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan
• Work with stakeholders and partners in infrastructure delivery, including Transport for West Midlands, the CCG and NHS Estates, utility providers, statutory bodies and neighbouring authorities
• Allocate funding from developer contributions in the annual Infrastructure Funding Statement to enable timely delivery of infrastructure to support development and growth objectives.

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41. The basis of the Plan is that economic development, environmental sustainability and health and wellbeing must move forward together so that sustainable inclusive economic growth and opportunity for all can be realised.

42. The Plan identifies five building blocks of inclusive economic growth:
• Building a vibrant economy (including social economy)
• Promoting and delivering social value
• Enabling communities to thrive
• Actioning the Council’s climate change declaration
• Improving skills and access to good work.