Object

Representation ID: 15784

Received: 01/10/2021

Respondent: David Baker

4) There seems little thought to infrastructure needed to accommodate these additional houses. In Walsall it is extremely difficult to get on a doctors list as most are at full capacity. There are no NHS dentists willing to take new patients on. The hospitals are over capacity. There are insufficient ambulances for the number of patients requiring them. Schools are at capacity. There are vague references to new health centres and junior schools being
required but no details as to when and where they are to be situated (are they to be built on more green belt land?). Roads around Walsall are very congested already and new housing will only add to it. There are no proposals to mitigate these concerns.

5) Reducing the green belt between Walsall communities within the Walsall borough will have a negative effect as traditional and cultural boundaries merge closer together.

6) New housing built in the future will require better insulation, solar roofs, heat pumps, rainwater catchment and reuse, and electric vehicle charging points all of which tend to increase the footprint of the house reducing the number that can be built on a plot of land. These new building regulations will also significantly increase the cost of houses so will
'affordable housing' be viable.


7) Green belt is becoming more and more important ecologically. In order to combat climate, change we need to increase green belt land and tree planting. Where is the detail on mitigations in the plan to reduce climate change and ecological damage?

9) In conclusion the plan removes green belt protection mainly in the Walsall borough. Other boroughs have relatively small green belt losses so the plan discriminates against Walsall residents who are being let down by their planners. This Black country plan appears to put the majority of the new housing requirement in Walsall. It appears that the other Black Country borough planners want the urban sprawl to be concentrated away from them in Walsall. There is no mitigation for this loss of green amenity to Walsall residents. There are no climate change mitigations for this loss and there is insufficient brownfield regeneration and reclassification proposed within Walsall. Although the plan refers to certain studies and investigations/ mitigations in regard to the green belt, these are not accessible to view as part of the plan. This plan is flawed.