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ID sylw: 105838

Derbyniwyd: 04/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mr Chris Baker

Re: Objection to Hockley Heath SG24 being included in the SWLP

I am a local Hockley Heath resident, having lived in the village for over 25 years and want to express my concern and objection to several elements of the SWLP


• Scale of Proposed Development and Solihull \ South Warwickshire alignment

The scale of the proposed allocation is excessive around what is currently a small village and the proposal if adopted would have a hugely detrimental impact on everyone who lives in the village and would destroy the character of the village

Hockley Heath is in Solihull but is surrounded on all sides by South Warwickshire yet SG24 is not aligned with the Solihull Local Plan which states that Hockley Heath is only suitable for small scale development.

It is critical that the SWLP and Solihull Local Plan are aligned as they need to work in harmony and my concern is that SWLP are committing to Infrastructure costs that will fall on Solihull Council that do not support them and the village, and its residents would suffer.

• Significant flooding and drainage risks ignored

Hockley Heath already experiences severe surface water flooding, in particular down the Stratford Road which is the main road through the village and also the surrounding country lanes and the existing drainage infrastructure is already inadequate and unsuitable for large scale development

• Transport, Health and Education

The roads around Hockley Heath are increasingly busy and grid locked when there are issues on the Motorway and bus services and intermittent and poor and any large-scale development would make this worse

We only have a small local school which is already at capacity and the Doctors surgery is already very busy - the Village cannot support any more people without supporting infrastructure which does not seem to have been thought out


• Green Belt Erosion

Hockley Heath is surrounded by Countryside and the proposal fails to demonstrate the 'exceptional circumstances' required for Green Belt release and I am sure that there are much better alternatives than swamping a small village with a huge development and destroying its character for people who have lived here for years