Object

Representation ID: 18018

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Mike Wood MP

[DUH216]

Please find enclosed a copy of my response to the consultation on the draft Black
Country Plan, with regard to site reference DUH216 at Bryce Road. I object to the proposal due concerns relating to:
• Loss of green space
• Impact on local roads, congestion and road safety
• Pressure on local schools and health services
• Cumulative impact of many other developments in the local area
• The site is poorly located for the parts of the Black Country that are expected to experience highest population growth over the course of this plan.


I hope that you will reconsider these proposals.

Ref: DUH216

As Member of Parliament for Dudley South, I am writing to outline my objections to the proposals included in the Black Country Plan under BCP Site Reference DUH216.

If approved, this proposal could see 115 news homes built on greenfield land at Bryce Road in Pensnett.

My objections focus around three key concerns:

1) The loss of green space provision
Having green spaces close by people's homes is essential for both their physical and mental health.
Many residents who live on Bryce Road, Rookery Park, Tiled House Lane and other surrounding roads tell me how they use this green space to walk their dogs, play games and sports with their children, and more generally to go for a simple walk to exercise and enjoy the outdoors.

If proposals to build 115 homes on this site were to be accepted, even with a token allocation of 25% of the space being allowed for open space and infrastructure, residents would see the size of this amenity reduced so significantly that it would be lost as the asset that it currently is.

2) Pressure on Bryce Road and Bromley Lane as a result of vehicle access to the new development, and other proposed and existing developments
Vehicle access to a new development would likely be via Bryce Road, accessed from Bromley Lane.

Residents already express concerns about congestion and pressure on parking in these areas, and therefore they are deeply concerned about the inevitable consequences of further pressure from 115 new homes.

3) Pressure on local schools and GP services
Already, local parents often have difficulty getting their children into the school of their choice, and in many cases find themselves adding their child's name to a waiting list only to find they have to choose another school.

Similarly, residents speak of great difficulty in obtaining GP appointments, often having to wait weeks to see any GP and even longer if they request to see their GP of choice.

We know that we need more housing to make sure there are enough homes for future generations – but when deciding where those homes are built, we have to consider the capacity of local services to cope.

Taken in isolation, the impact of the 115 homes proposed for Bryce Road might appear manageable, but the effect of thousands of new homes – either recently completed, currently under construction or proposed under this draft Plan – within a short distance of Pensnett would put local infrastructure and services under severe pressure. It is this cumulative impact that must be considered.

The methodology underlying the draft Black Country Plan is fundamentally flawed. Instead of recognising the need to link areas for development with levels of population growth in different parts of the region, the draft plan is indifferent to where in the Black Country sites are located. This has led to the perverse - and illogical - proposal that very large numbers of houses (including those that have either recently been completed or which are currently under construction) ought to be developed in a small area around Kingswinford and Pensnett even though ONS project very low levels of population growth in those parts of the region, while boroughs with far higher projected population growth are due to build far fewer new homes than Dudley. This is enormously unfair on residents in Dudley who face the loss of precious green spaces so that homes can be built that are not needed by local people, but it is also unfair on those families in areas of the Black Country that will need many more houses but will be expected to move miles away to the other side of the region.

There is a clear need for decision-makers to make renewed efforts to secure additional brownfield sites, to invest in any land remediation necessary to make them suitable for housing development, and to avoid development on important green spaces such as this.

In conclusion, with these three key concerns in mind, I reiterate my objection to proposal DUH16 in the Black Country Plan and encourage decision-makers to instead further exhaust development opportunities on brownfield land and ensure that residents living near to Bryce Road and Blackwater Close can continue to have access to the recreational space that they need and do not suffer the cumulative effects of enormous development within such a short distance of Pensnett.