Object

Representation ID: 21470

Received: 05/10/2021

Respondent: Ms Joanne James

REF WAH242 CALDERFIELDS FARM

Dear Councillor Bird

The Black Country Plan plans to build 5500 homes on Walsall Green Belt.

In an Interview for Birmingham Mail you said 'I'm not convinced these houses are required. I have not seen the methodology the government has used'. I too would question the computer based algorithm to assess the housing needs which seems totally overinflated. Local councils rather than the government are surely better equipped to judge their housing targets.

The projections assume the population of the Black Country will rise at an alarming rate from 2023-2039 well above normal growth and does not take into account that this could also decrease as well as increase. With work from home becoming the normal, people have been re-evaluating their lives and as a consequence people have been moving away from towns in search of a better quality of life.

If growth were normal, all future developments and improvements to our infrastructure can be fully accommodated within the urban area. Brownfield First. Surely there is more than enough Brownfield, old Industrial and windfall sites and developments that already have planning permission available to accommodate housing targets without the permanent destruction of Greenbelt.

I would also ask ‘has the pandemic changed the housing supply equation’. Working from home and shopping online have hollowed out many urban centres. Walsall in particular is full of offices and shops empty and unused. Could Walsall’s struggling high street and business zones with its good transport links be repurposed as residential neighbourhoods rather than our beautiful countryside.

I have submitted my objections to BCP but the consultation process is flawed and discriminatory. Communication of this plan has been extremely poor and over complicated meaning people are either unaware of it, or don't know how to respond.

Councillor Nawaz said "If the council can send a council tax bill to every house in the borough, then they can let every house in the borough know about the proposals'

Councillor Nawaz says he will be voting against the proposal and will be asking all the Walsall Labour Councillors to vote against the development.

My question is 'how will you vote?'

Will you vote to save our Green Belt? Once it's gone it's gone forever!

I look forward to hearing from you.