Comment

Representation ID: 18384

Received: 07/10/2021

Respondent: Richard Williams

With less than three days to go before consultation regarding the Black Country Plan closes, how do I make comment on a plan that has been developed for over four years by a team who have access to both private and public research, investigations and ideas? A chance word last Monday made me aware that there was a plan and after an e-mail exchange with the local authority to find it, I discover that the deadline for comments is next week.
It would appear that the need for the councils to build 75000 extra houses across the whole area is the principal issue together with the supporting infrastructure of employment, education, transport, medical facilities, shops etc.. On the face of it I applaud the use of ‘brown field’ sites but I am concerned about the ‘green belt’ areas that have been identified. These seem to be small and scattered across the area. Assuming that this whole exercise for each council to build affordable housing, will the housing stock be in keeping with the area? In Worcester Lane (Stourbridge) houses already exist worth in the excess of £500,000 so is the council proposing to build their houses in the same style as the rest of the area. Will there be sufficient schooling available for these new families – local schools are currently struggling to find space for existing children so a new school would have to be built. Would any new schools built on this ‘green belt’ land, cause existing small schools to close (thus providing new brown field sites) The whole idea of using small areas of ‘green belt’ land to top up the local authority housing stock needs to be carefully thought through in terms of costs. Will the council houses be built in keeping with the existing local stock – how much additional cost will be required for educational needs – will the current medical services need to be improved.
No doubt all these issues will have been considered over discussions in the last four or five years but if this is a plan for 2039 how many changes are there likely to be before then?
‘Brown field’ sites should be the first to be developed even if they are more costly. Using land which is doing nothing and le to go derelict, will always be preferable to using our precious ‘green belt’. This could also be used to meet the various Council objectives of cleaning up the environment. It is likely that once the ‘brown field’ sites have been used, new sites will be required and ‘green bel’ has to be used but these areas must be dealt with sympathetically and new builds must be developed in the style of the existing area.
These are just general thoughts as I have not had me to digest the plan or even Dudley’s part in it. I get notified of the lay persons who want to be elected on to the West Midlands Police Authority but with something much more fundamental to my area, i.e. a Plan for the Black Country, I have received no notification or information.