Conservative councillors hit out as Green Belt sites in Sutton Coldfield proposed for housing and industrial use
A map showing the 15 sites across Sutton Coldfield’s Green Belt proposed for housing developments (with red house icons) and two sites proposed for industrial use (with yellow factory icons)(Image: Google)
Proposals to build on more of Sutton Coldfield’s Green Belt – potentially involving thousands more homes and land for industrial use – have been labelled an ‘attack on the town’.
Birmingham City Council is consulting on documents detailing areas across the city which could be developed in the next 20 years to 2044.
Some 15 Green Belt sites in Sutton, including parts of country parks and golf courses and huge chunks of land on the edge of the town proposed for thousands of homes, have been put forward.
READ MORE: The 15 sites in Sutton Coldfield’s Green Belt proposed for thousands of homes
A Green Belt assessment, carried out by Arup, for the city council, said a number of the sites were either potential ‘grey belt’ – land within the Green Belt which had been previously developed – or land which, while in the Green belt, did not satisfy enough of its ‘purposes’.
READ MORE: Mapped – the 17 Green Belt sites in Sutton Coldfield proposed for housing and industrial use
Across Birmingham, just 19 Green Belt sites are being proposed for house building – and more than three-quarters of them are in Sutton. Both of the two sites proposed for industrial use are also in the town.
Full details of the areas and what has been proposed can be found here. Maps showing how much land is at stake can be viewed here.
An area labelled Withy Hill, between Withy Hill Road and Tamworth Road in Sutton Coldfield could have 2,000 homes built on it if developers were given the go ahead (Image: Arup)
It all comes before a brick has been laid on any of the 5,500 homes already given the go-ahead at Langley, a swathe of former Green Belt land near Walmley.
Amazon is also the only occupier of Peddimore – former Green Belt land next to Minworth in Sutton which was allowed to be used for industrial purposes. Sutton Coldfield Town Council’s leader, Coun Simon Ward (Four Oaks, Cons) described the proposals as an ‘attack on Sutton Coldfield’.
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He said: “This is the potential opening of a door that could well lead to the loss of more of our Green Belt. Is this a door that has to be opened? I’m not sure.
“If something is designated as grey belt, its another step toward it being lost. Birmingham has enough space for its housing needs to 2044.
“And 5,500 spaces at Langley for homes that haven’t been built yet.
“When Sutton Coldfield Town Council was doing the consultation on the Plan for Neighbourhoods [on how to spend a £20 million pot of money from the Government on the town], we had 4,500 responses.
“The most important thing to residents is the green nature of Sutton. This is an absolute attack on that.”
Two strips of land either side of Slade Lane – west of Bassetts Pole have been proposed for industrial use – but concerns have been raised in a Green Belt Assessment that they could leave an island of Green Belt land (Image: Arup)
Fellow Sutton Coldfield town councillor, Richard Parkin, whose Reddicap ward neighbours one of the areas proposed for more homes, also challenged the proposals.
He said: “Sutton Coldfield’s green belt is at ‘considerable risk’ of new housing development because of the significant changes introduced by the Government in its new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
“The NPPF includes changes to how housing need is calculated, alongside a requirement for authorities to undertake a green belt review to meet local housing needs.
“More of the green belt is now at risk of housing and employment development because it can be re-classified as grey belt.
“This is essentially a back door route for destroying the green belt and building new homes. Green spaces are what makes our town so unique in Birmingham and such a special place to live and work in.
“If you oppose these changes please make your voice heard.”
An overview of the new Langley homes site on Sutton Coldfield’s former green belt land(Image: Birmingham city Council)
The town council has formally objected to the proposals.
In a report, Jon Lord, the council’s head of regeneration and sustainability, said: “Currently, there is no need identified for any additional housing to justify the release of Green Belt.”
He said the identification of ‘grey belt’ sites was ‘not a sustainable approach’. There would need to be substantial investment in sustainable transport.
And classifying land as ‘grey belt’ put the rest of the Green Belt at risk, he said.
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Coun Ward and the chair of Sutton town council’s planning and highways committee, Tony Briggs, have written to their counterparts at Birmingham City Council ‘strongly objecting’ to the Green Belt Assessment listing the 15 areas as potential development spots.
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Sutton Coldfield MP, Andrew Mitchell said: “I’m making sure that my constituents have the opportunity to comment and I congratulate Coun Parkin for getting the deadline extended.
“I will be responding to the consultation on behalf of Sutton Coldfield when we reach the deadline.”
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The Focused Preferred Options consultation was due to end on Thursday, December 4, but the deadline was extended to Friday, December 19, after Coun Parkin’s lobbying.
Comments on the proposals can be made by emailing: planningstrategy@birmingham.gov.uk, where responders should leave their full name and address. The city council said this was not the final version of the Birmingham Local Plan, which is set to come out next June for a six-week consultation.