Object

Representation ID: 13192

Received: 09/10/2021

Respondent: Michael Glasson

I am writing with specific reference to the impact the Black Country Plan will have on the Walsall Green Belt. The Walsall Green Belt is currently a continuous and coherent area of open countryside and woodland which hugely enhances the eastern side of the Borough. Following the course of the Holbrook Stream, the Green Belt links together Walsall Arboretum, Walsall
Country Park, vitally important areas of scrub land to the east of the Rushall Canal (site refWAH233), Hay Head Wood nature reserve, public open space at the former Aldridge Airfield, Cuckoo's Nook nature reserve and the Dingle nature reserve, ultimately leading to the Barr Beacon nature reserve. Following the Rushall Canal the belt links up with important wildlife areas around Park Lime Pits nature reserve. Much of this land is in Council ownership and has been actively managed for wildlife for many years.
Collectively the areas listed above form one of the most important collections of wildlife sites in the West Midlands, with a very rich range of flora and fauna. Over 60 species of birds have been recorded in Walsall Country Park between 2017-21, for example, including 12 endangered Red Book species (nearly one fifth of the British total). This is important not just as a vital resource of biodiversity but also as a valuable green lung for Walsall residents, offering areas for off-road walking, running, and cycling in a traffic- free and low pollution atmosphere. Modern research has revealed the huge benefits to peoples mental and physical health from exercising regularly in 'natural' areas. Given the very poor health record of Walsall (in common with most of the Black Country) we should be enhancing not reducing people opportunities for healthy exercise in countryside areas.
The Black Country Plan threatens to seriously fragment and damage the coherence and integrity of the Walsall Green Belt by building thousands of houses on what are currently green fields. Proposed development site WAH233 in particular would be especially damaging, lying as it does between Walsall Country Park/Rushall Canal to the west and open farmland leading to Hay Head wood to the north and east. This site is also the location of an important archaeological site, Walsall's best preserved medieval moat (Wood End Moat). lt also includes areas of scrub, of great importance to wildlife.
Inserting a large housing estate into this location would be disastrous.
Proposed development site WAH242 would have a huge visual impact on Walsall's much loved Arboretum and it is impossible to see how building over 400 houses in this location could be anything other than hugely damaging to the integrity of Walsall's most popular park.
The Plan does not address the issue of the impact some 5000 new homes (and 15- 20,000 new residents?) will have on local infrastructure. To taker just one aspect of infrastructure it is hard to see how Walsall's existing road network could cope with such a significant increase in traffic given the gridlock conditions which already exist at peak commuting times. Nor does the plan address the issue of the additional environmental pollution created by such an increase in traffic, specifically the likely increase in the number of Walsall residents who will suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases as a result.
There is a clear alternative- we should be building in the heart of the Black Country, rejuvenating existing town centres and revitalising former industrial brown field sites, close to where people actually work ( thereby reducing commuting) and where good infrastructure such as schools, shops, medical centres, leisure centres etc already exists. It would be tragic to needlessly sacrifice Walsalls Green Belt.