Object

Representation ID: 15827

Received: 10/10/2021

Respondent: Mrs Esther Littler

Number of people: 2

Black Country Plan - Ref WAH242 (policy WSA7)
- The proposed development would significantly harm the openness of the green belt which is an
integral part of the character and landscape of the area. Loss of the existing views and both privacy and overlooking would adversely affect us as neighbouring owners. The greenbelt land contributes to the quality of the adjacent Arboretum which directly overlooks the open fields with its grazing animals and forms an essential part of the setting of the Arboretum. We are also concerned on the impact it will have on the local wildlife. The development site itself is known to have bats as well as red deer, owls (Tawny and Barn), woodpeckers, skylarks, Nuthatches, buzzards and parakeets. The development site would destroy wildlife corridors and light overspill may negatively impact the bats and other wildlife causing destruction of habitats. It is also known that the Arboretum, the Aldridge Road and the proposed site have a history of flooding and concreting over the countryside will make this worse - I have walked around the Arboretum on several occasions in the last few years where the footpaths have been flooded. The field behind our house at these times has also been flooded.
- There are many Brownfield sites around the borough to consider before building on precious green belt land. Andy Street recently posted about winning £33million of government cash to continue to regenerate brownfield sites. This is surely the better option to regenerate and create new communities, create jobs as well as protecting our greenbelt.
-There is also the question of access to and from this site. The local infrastructure (roads, schools
etc) will not cater to the extra population and vehicles. 592 proposed homes is a lot of extra cars on local roads bearing in mind most households have 2 cars. Local secondary schools (such as Aldridge School are already oversubscribed) and traffic every weekday morning
queues back from the Peugoet garage island all the way back to the Dilke. A new housing estate of the size proposed will create further issues and increase air pollution due to increased vehicles on the road.
- I would also like to say that this has hardly been a consultation of local people. A lot of local people were only made aware of this by local residents knocking on doors and pushing through homemade flyers. We pay a lot of council tax to Walsall council and the very least that you could have done was to post out to residents directly affected. Not everyone is digital so the process has not been open to everyone.
Comments supported by Craig Littler, resident at same address