Object

Representation ID: 17970

Received: 07/10/2021

Respondent: Mr and Mrs Philip and Valerie Rhead

Number of people: 2

800 Homes to be built on Green Belt at Home Farm. Sandhills.

I cannot believe that we need 13,344 new homes and 164ha of employment land in Walsall.
I am nearly [age redacted] years of age and when I was younger Walsall was a fantastic town with fantastic shops. My family and myself were regular visitors to the town and we always enjoyed our visits. Now the town is a disgrace with many empty shop units and we only go there if we have to, which is very rare.
I have walked along Brownhills High Street and counted an empty garage workshop, a closed public house and 52 empty retail units. These empty units will not be used as shops again. Many have been empty for years. Even I have relented and purchased some goods online, this week, from Amazon, so the future of retail is now very much reduced from what it was.
I know that it is more expensive to convert existing buildings or demolish and re-build, but this must be the way forward. To take the easy and cheaper route and build on Green Belt land will destroy the planet in a very short time.
Building on this scale also requires a large increase in services, water, sewerage, gas, electricity, schools and medical care: are these available or can they be provided at reasonable cost?
By building on Green Belt we are also reducing our ability to provide food for ourselves so we are becoming reliant on food from other countries and they can hold us to ransom if they desire.
In addition, by building on Green Belt we are adversely affecting our climate and are not creating healthy and safe places to live, which is another requirement of the Draft Black Country Plan.
This development has so many negative outcomes that there is no way that it should be allowed.