Object

Representation ID: 21417

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Mrs Sarah Westwood

Site Reference Numbers: The Triangle: DUH 211 page 371 and Holbeach: DUH 208 page 371
I strongly object to the proposed development of greenbelt land sited at 'The Triangle', Swindon Road, Wall Heath, Kingswinford and the land south of Holbeache Lane, Wolverhampton Road, Kingswinford. My objections are as follows:

1. Roads and highways
The roads in the Kingswinford and Wall Heath areas are already strained and the additional developments will only make this issue worse. There is just too much traffic on the local roads and it will be insufferable if this volume increases further. I am concerned as I have two young children who walk to and from school daily, and the further congestion will only cause more issues to their health and there is increased danger if the volume of traffic increases. I also travel to Walsall during rush hour and my journey can take up to 1 hour, if the new housing development goes ahead then this will impact on my ability to take my children to school.

2. Local Infrastructure
I struggled to get places for my daughters in the local primary school when they started and at one point it looked as though they would have to go to separate schools. I am already concerned about getting my children into the local secondary school, as it is already oversubscribed. The new housing developments may make this impossible and will mean that they will have to travel further to school by car, or by bus, which will again impact on the traffic volumes. There were 615 applications made this year for Kingswinford Academy even though there are only 180 places available. There were 539 applications made to Summerhill Secondary School and only 210 places available. The Black Country Plan has no consideration for this and will make it more difficult for our local children to get into their local schools.
There will be more strain on the local doctors and hospital. It is already difficult to get an appointment at the local doctors and I recently had to wait for over five hours when I took my daughter to A&E. There are long waiting lists for operations and consultations and the problems will only get worse.

3. Environmental Factors
I moved here to the area a few years ago so that I could give my children a better life; we enjoy going on family walks and bike rides in our local areas and can access the countryside very easily. It has really helped the mental health and wellbeing of my family. However, the green belt will be gone before our eyes and there will be irrevocable damage to the environment if these developments are approved. We will lose the natural landscape; beautiful views and it will cause harm to the local wildlife. The drainage in the area is already under strain and the developments will impact upon this further and will increase the risks to flooding. The air and water quality will decrease with the extra pollution from traffic and from the construction site chemicals. It will contribute to climate change. There are plenty of brown field sites in the Black Country area which will make the area look better as they are unused and unsightly.
Once developers start to build on green belt, they will need to take this further by building more developments (local services and roads), so that the area will cope with the volume of people. LEAVE OUR COUNTRYSIDE AND GREEN BELT ALONE!!!