You Said....

Posted Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sainsbury's Dorridge.  I am really concerned about this going ahead as there are lots of safety issues, due to the increase volume of traffic causing pollution and noise. I also feel that due to the size of the supermarket it will damage the character of the whole village.
Mrs J Gorevan

Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Residents in the vicinity of Tudor Grange School are no doubt blissfully unaware that plans have been submitted to build a large, noisy industrial structure in the school grounds adjacent to Whitefields Road . Not only is the proposed building extremely large and unsightly, it is of cheap metal construction pained green, which will provide a blank canvas for local graffiti artists, the noise will be particularly intrusive starting at 6 a.m. each morning, a very attractive mature oak tree will be felled and even more playing field will disappear. If a new water booster station is needed then put it underground like the existing one then everyone will be happy.
For reference this is application 2009/818
Judy Middleton

Posted Monday, November 12, 2007
Well now, having read what "Lorely supporter" had to say about the sale of the old field on Monkspath Hall Road, it seems somewhat ironic that the Star & Garter residential home for ex-servicemen is near completion, as is the new Solihull Sports Complex on Blossomfield Road. Political activists and anti-progress merchants will always try to spread doom and gloom on such developments, and this one's certainly no different.
We were treated to over three years of  anger, bad press and threats of dire consequences from selling that land; however as soon as the new buildings are up and running  we will see in bricks, mortar, concrete and green space the vision that emerged during the consultation phase of the operation. What we started with was a rundown and ageing swimming pool that was losing around £100K per year, and a reconstituted parcel of former bogland that was no good to man nor beast.
What we have now is a prestigious Care Home for the elderly, and a brand-new Leisure Centre that is amongst the  best examples of its sort in the country. This, my fellow Silhillians, is progress; we cannot stand still in this world, and nor can we backslide to the days of the last century - Q.E.D!
Cllr. Johnny Bramham

Posted Tuesday, September 13, 2005
I find it hard to believe that there have been no comments left here with regard to the planning application which has been shown here for several months. This application includes the obtaining of planning permission to build on the 'non parkland' area facing onto Monkspath Hall Road. The park itself is being reduced in amenity value in general by the introduction of the skateboard area and a further hard surfaced area adjacent as well as the original children's play area. Solihull Council should seek to improve this area of undeveloped land rather than sell it off.
Lorely Supporter

Posted Friday, July 22, 2005
Reply to Renault 5 GT Turbo owner
1 Learn to speak the QUEENS English
2 Buy British (Ford Cos 450 BHP)
3 Turn stereo down and listen to your car
4 Grow up, act like an adult you might get treated like one
And finally ,RESPECT isn't a god given right it has to be EARNED.
Symon

Applications of General Interest - 13 July 2005
Application No 2002/1469
Land at Tudor Grange and Norman Green Leisure Centres, Blossomfield Road, Solihull B91 1NB
Proposal: PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW LEISURE CENTRE (USE CLASS D2) INCLUDING SWIMMING POOL AND SPORTS HALL, EXERCISE STUDIO AND FITNESS SUITE, CRECHE AND CAFÉ BAR, WITH ASSOCIATED CAR PARKING AND LANDSCAPING. EXISTING LEISURE CENTRE TO BE DEMOLISHED ON COMPLETION OF NEW DEVELOPMENT.
Application No 2002/1470
Land at Tudor Grange and Norman Green Leisure Centres, Tudor Grange Park and land adjacent to Monkspath Hall Road, Solihull
Proposal: PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW LEISURE CENTRE (USE CLASS D2) INCLUDING SWIMMING POOL, SPORTS HALL, EXERCISE STUDIO AND FITNESS SUITE, CRECHE AND CAFÉ BAR, WITH ASSOCIATED CAR PARKING AND LANDSCAPING. EXISTING LEISURE CENTRE TO BE DEMOLISHED ON COMPLETION OF NEW DEVELOPMENT. OUTLINE APPLICATION FOR PARKLAND IMPROVEMENTS AT TUDOR GRANGE PARK AND FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDENTIAL AND/OR RESIDENTIAL CARE USE (USE CLASS C3 AND/OR C2) WITH THE MEANS OF ACCESS TO BE DETERMINED AT THIS STAGE WHICH INCLUDES A NEW JUNCTION OFF MONKSPATH HALL ROAD AND NEW ROUNDABOUT AND ALTERATIONS TO ADJACENT CAR PARK.

Posted Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Application to demolish Fowgay Hall! Application 647 Deadline 14/7/2005
Please join me in objecting strongly to the application to demolish 17th century Fwogay Hall for a block of 14 flats with underground car parking.
David Jones

Posted Thursday, January 23, 2003
Re The T.A Centre Haslucks Green Road, Shirley. Can anyone tell me the plans for the now de-funked T.A centre. The land is now ready for, well who knows, a new supermarket or a car park or maybe a swimming pool!!?. Maybe even a new ten story office block that can sit empty for a couple of years. Personally I can just see it as a second hand car lot. If only the demolition crew had moved over the road to the old office building, they could have raised that to the ground and done us all a favour.
R Spicer

Posted Saturday, January 11, 2003
I have just had an experience that I do not wish to repeat. I, with my 10year daughter have just been shopping to the retail site at Marshall Lake Road, for a couple of items that cost 5.58..Twenty minutes to be served, but that's ok as the shop was busy. Then an hour to leave the car park which was a total,
how can I say (cock up)!, No clear markings, No one knowing which way to go, No one moving because every exit blocked, No traffic control, No traffic management, No traffic control (oh did I sat that already), No traffic wardens, nothing, not a bit of control, just 1500 cars dumped in a car park to sort themselves out. Solihull council be ashamed!!!!. By the way that's the last time you will catch me shopping at Marshall Lake Road next time I'll drive to Redditch, It will be quicker!!.
Rick Spicer

I'm 15 and go to lode heath school just outside of Solihull town centre, and we use these sports facilities frequently for GCSE PE lessons and for taking part in borough sports .I think that if any construction work should go ahead it should be to improve the facilities we already have. You keep on bringing in new shops and houses but people need something else to do, and people moving into the area will look for facilities that already exist but won't for much longer). You want to bring more people in to Solihull but are pushing the people who already live here out! I think it's a case if getting your priorities right and think about the younger generation of the community-and where you expect us to go!
Helen Prior

Damson Parkway
In light of recent proposals for Birmingham Airport and Land Rover's rail link, has anyone in the Damson Parkway, Damsonwood and surrounding areas got any concerns/problems with regard to impact on traffic/environment? I have been concerned about the huge increase in the volume of traffic around this area, particularly around the rear entrance of Land Rover, Damson Parkway to/from Coventry Road. Please let me know what you think?
C Hoden 09 September 2002

Airport Expansion
Proposals to build new airport runways in an attempt to cope with rising UK demand for air travel have been unveiled by the government today. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said that Birmingham airport could be expanded, or a new airport could be built in the region. Friends of the Earth attacked the proposals even before they had been made public, saying the government's regional studies were "flawed and rigged".  Have Your Say

Application of General Interest
Application No 2002/1522
153-159 St. Bernards Road, Solihull B92 7DH
Proposal RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF 48 APARTMENTS COMPRISING: 5 NO. 2.5 AND 3 STOREY BLOCKS
Comment
This application cannot and must not be supported. The properties covered by this application lie inside the Olton Conservation Area. This was created to retain the nature of the area: Edwardian and Victorian houses. To build blocks of apartments will change the nature of the area significantly.
It is also worthy of note that this section of St Bernards Road suffers from tremendous traffic problems. At times traffic queues from the island at Grange Road right up to the island at Streetsbrook Road. 48 apartments will generate a large number of extra vehicles which will compound the problem.
By Cllr Norman Davies  09/07/02

Re Tudor Grange Leisure Centre
After all the trouble you went through getting people's point's of view. It has gone very quite. I was led to believe that we are going down the same path as Nuneton (Pingles) building a brand new complex on the car park?.
What are the plans and when do you intend to start work?
Dave Graham - Solihull Swmming Club 9 July 2002

Earlier comments say it all - Tory council, greed, personal gain - what chance the environment?  would a Socialist council have done any different though? Maybe acres of public squalor housing instead.
It's the same battle everywhere - here in Southern Ontario every bit of green land is under threat of 'development'.
And to think I used to pine for that Tolkienian arcadia in which I grew up, now another Mordor! 
Derek Armstrong 26 May 2002

In addition to the Planning Application for more Apartments at 339-347 Station Road, Dorridge there is another for 9 dwellings at 237-245 Station Road, Knowle - less than quarter of a mile away! In the latter 4 houses will be demolished, two of these are character houses which will be lost, the other two have little to commend them in that they were built by modernist architecture design - all 4 are quite habitable and this is yet another example of Developers cashing-in on unclear Government guidelines. Both these developments will add yet more traffic to an already exceptionally busy road between the hours of 7.45-9.30am and 3.15-6.30pm. If approved Station Road will be in danger of becoming yet another car park!!
In both developments an average of two cars per house/flat will need to enter Station Road at dangerous points as the flats will be almost opposite a school entrance and the houses almost but not quite directly opposite Barcheston Road creating a "semi-crossroads" a few yards from the traffic island on Station/Widney Road. Clearly chaos/uncertainty/danger will reign at both points. To illustrate this ask any resident on Station Road near to the Purnells Way junction how many car shunts have taken place, particularly in the winter - the answer runs to dozens fortunately no one (yet) has been killed.
It looks as if Developers are determined to change that by thoughtless planning applications - their bottom line being more important than life!
Keith & Lynne Moody 14 May 2002

The Council is just greedy selling of all this land in Solihull for building houses or shops. Yes the swimming baths needs upgrading, possibly even knocking down and starting again, maybe using more of the parks land to enlarge the facility, BUT IT DOES NOT NEED MOVING ELSEWHERE!!!!!!!
With the money the Council got on the sale of the land to Lend Lease who built Touchwood we could have a state of the art swimming and leisure complex in the current position. Solihull has become busier with traffic since Touchwood and has made living near the centre frustrating and miserable. The Council should do something for the local people for once and not for themselves. Spend some money for the local people because we haven't seen any money spent by the council for us for a long time.
Michael Webb

Al this major development going on, but the individual has to apply for council permission for even the smallest of alterations to their home.
Bemused

I grew up in Solihull. I am still under 40 and not adverse to change but what is being done at the moment in Solihull is nothing short of criminal. To take a nice quiet town and destroy it in the way that has been done in Solihull is something we should all look at with much shame. I can not understand at all the building of more and more offices in an area where many 'to-let' signs are evident. What is the point of dragging more traffic onto the M42, already over capacity and please, please can someone tell me why we need to build more shops only to attract people in from further out of the local region. Can't someone bang some heads together down at council HQ ?
Pete Harcourt

Does anyone know if there are any plans to re-develop areas of Balsall Common, i.e. the High Street. There is no parking and the area is in desperate need of modernisation.
Graeme Smith

Does anybody know what is happening to the housing development in Wiseacre Croft Shirley? My wife used to live there, & we have heard some houses are coming down to make way for a small development of houses.
John Kitchen

It seems strange that every development in Solihull, no matter how big or small, has somebody objecting to it. Anywhere else would be begging for developers to take such an interest! Solihull is a *metropolitan* borough, i.e. the whole point is to build here or we will be building on the countryside instead.

Why do people in the local papers complain about "the character" of Solihull being destroyed? At least two thirds of the borough must have been built since the sixties, so most of the "character" is ugly concrete office and residential blocks and miserable new housing estates with no community facilities within walking distance. Why on earth would anyone want to keep that? I am sorry, but people from outside Solihull (I was one until 2 years ago), view the town as just a new suburb of Greater Birmingham. It does not have an identity of its own. It seems to me that thoughtful new development could give it the separate identity locals seem to want.

Having said all that I don't know why it is necessary to build new retail units on Stratford Road when there are 2 or 3 that have been empty for months in Solihull/Sears retail park about 200 yards away!
Andrew James

Speed bumps need to be placed on Ravenswood Drive in Solihull as I have witnessed so many near misses and there are two serious blind corners. For more info contact the local neighbourhood watch team.
Sharon Barrys

Good work with those gates down at Sears Retail Park in Shirley. I can now sleep at night without the sound of 19yr old idiots in there tracksuits wheel spinning, racing and playing really annoying 'dance/ garage (more like garbage) music all night long (it sounds like a jammed record that repetitive beat)
Good work though
Jon Bod

Reply! Stupid gates on the retail park! I cud break in well easy! yeh yo have probably never owned a decent car wiv a bod stereo so u blatent wudnt understand y we go there to have fun! ppl like u make me sick with ur slippers and pipe in front of the fire just always trying to start arguments and always complaing about sumthing y dotn u all get a life u winging ********!
Renault 5 gt turbo owner! 230bhp!900 watts of pure bass!

I've seen too many areas ruined to provide office space which remains unoccupied for years to see any justification for building more. The biggest joke is that when expansion is allowed to take place (30,000 jobs to borough!) they then move in 30,000 people into un-numbered new homes to take those jobs.
I'd love to see the figures for unemployed local people before these developments and then for after. meanwhile more countryside has gone and more 'community' is destroyed. Blythe Valley is the perfect example.....the new housing estate wasn't built for people living locally, it was to bring outsiders in to take the jobs the council dangled as carrots to the local community in order to persuade them to agree to the desecration of the countryside they'd enjoyed for generations.
Another trick, not unlike the selling off of council properties, when everyman and his brother snapped up their cheap rung on the house buying ladder (and who can blame them?) only to discover their own children could no longer afford to live near them! and there were no longer council properties in the area for them to occupy. Yet another nail in the coffin of rural (and other local community) life. The end of generations long community spirit, and in its place......indifference, insecurity, fear and suspicion. Families and villages wrenched apart for no benefit whatsoever to themselves or their families, the sole beneficiaries being the councils egos and those outsiders able to afford the properties. (because they'd taken the jobs the locals had imagined to be their own.)
Why are people so unable to see through these pathetic and empty promises?
M Etheridge

I fully endorse the thoughts of Ian Giles. He has made a simple point that appears to be lost when developers get their greedy eyes on pieces of land. As a keen conservationist I prefer to have fields rather than houses but concede that there is an ever increasing need to house the growing population. Unfortunately there appears to be no thought as to realistic and considerate planning when there is big money around, something else seems to be the guiding factors. Who's great idea was it to have the cycle lane along Shirley high street? I have yet to see a cyclist use it. I am sure it cost significantly more to put it there than it would have to do some decent 'common sense' research. Alas there does not seem to be a reasonable profit margin in the common sense approach.
Neil A. Bromley

I hear that the latest piece of planning lunacy being considered by Solihull MBC is the proposed building of a retail park in Blackford Lane, Shirley. They want to pull down 12 or so decent house, along with flattening Dallas Exchange so yet more ugly buildings can blot the landscape.
Quite apart from that section of road by Evans Halshaw being a nightmare even at quite times the proposed buildings will back on to a junior school.
A perfect site to create yet more traffic chaos to go with the queues into the Marshall Lake retail park & Solihull. Well done to a council who have refused a doctors surgery permission to relocate on the grounds that the extra traffic will be a problem but a pub & restaurant complex wont create any problems at all.....Unbelievable!!!!
Ian Giles

Can somebody please convince a developer that not every family can afford 350k for a family home. Is there nobody who can build a family home for less than 200k or is everything about the bottom line (profit) in large amounts.
Lee Hartigan

Application of General Interest - 27 May 2002
Application No 2002/1027
90 Broad Oaks Road, Solihull B91 1HZ
OUTLINE APPLICATION FOR ERECTION OF 1 NO. APARTMENT BLOCK CONTAINING 5 APARTMENTS.

Application of General Interest - 28 March 2002
Application No 2002/675
339 - 347 Station Road, Dorridge
ERECTION OF THREE APARTMENT BLOCKS AND TO DEMOLISH 339 - 347 STATION ROAD AND ASSOCIATED WORKS AND THE PROVISION OF A PELICAN PEDESTRIAN CROSSING. Recorded 28/03/02 Deadline 23/05/02
Station Road Flats Development Refused
Solihull MBC Planning Subcommittee met on 16th October 2002 and decided to refuse this application by Parkridge Homes. A total of 173 objections to the application had been recorded, Packwood Councillor Ken Meeson, the Knowle Society and the Dorridge and District Residents Association being among the objectors. In particular, a letter from the West Midlands Police (Traffic and Rural Sector Inspector) raised concerns on the grounds of road safety and crime prevention, the lack of adequate car parking on the site and the inevitably increased parking on Station Road.

Application of General Interest - 28 March 2002
Application No 2002/676
1266 - 1288 Warwick Road, Knowle
ERECTION OF 7 DETACHED APARTMENT BLOCKS COMPRISING 47 PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL DWELLINGS WITH BASEMENT CAR PARKING
Recorded 28/03/02 Deadline 23/05/02

Demolition of 1266-1288 Warwick Road

News - March 2, 2002
We are currently faced with several planning applications in Dorridge to demolish family homes to build blocks of flats. Current applications are in Granville Road (a fine Victorian/Edwardian house that is part of local heritage), and Manor Road but also likely to have application for several properties in Station Road. I have petitioned the Council and proposed an approach to Government to amend their current planning policy so that local authorities can have greater powers to refuse such applications where they adversely affect the character of existing residential areas. Would welcome support by letters to MPs, Council and government.
Councillor Ken Meeson
Parkridge Homes have now withdrawn their application to demolish No. 7 Granville Road, and replace it with apartments. Over 150 letters were received by the Council along with a petition of 470 signatures  presented by Cllr. Meeson.

Green Light for Asda in Shirley  - February 8, 2002
Solihull council have approved outline plans for a 50,000 sq. ft supermarket development on land at the rear of shops along Stratford Road Shirley and that occupied by the disused TA centre in Haslucks Green Road. A full consultation process will now take place with those who will be affected by the plans. Solihull has recently stated its desire to establish a 'new heart' for the area. Previous plans for an Asda store on the former Powergen site were thrown out after local protests.

Council to Challenge Church Hill Road Development  - February 3, 2002
Solihull council has launched a challenge over a controversial planning decision in the High Court which would see 78 flats built in Whitefields Road and Church Hill Road after more than 400 letters of objection have been sent to the council.
Council solicitor Michael Blamire-Brown said the council felt the move to prevent the three-storey flats being built was necessary to stop a precedent being set in Solihull. "We accept the possibility of development here, but we believe not to the density that has been approved as this will set an uneasy precedent. We don't believe the planning inspector was correct in stating that 78 flats could be built on this site. Between 30-40 would have been better."

The Solihull Unitary Development Plan
The UDP contains policies affecting the future development of the area in which we live, including land use for housing, business and recreation up to 2011.
You can view the detailed plans at  www.solihull.gov.uk/bestvalue/udp
Or at Solihull Libraries. Full copies can be purchased at a cost of £20.

Application of General Interest - 07 March 2002
Application No 2002/526
Location Grimshaw Hall Estate, Hampton Road, Knowle, Solihull B93 0NX
Proposal APPLICATION FOR LISTED BUILDING CONSENT FOR CONVERSION OF EXISTING OUTBUILDING TO 10 NEW DWELLINGS AND ERECTION OF 12 GARAGES ON ADJACENT LAND
Application Withdrawn 16 October 2002
A report from the Planning Department that would have been considered by the Sub-Committee recommended refusal on the grounds that the site is in an area where Green Belt Policies apply, would cause harm to the character and setting of Grimshaw Hall, access to the development has inadequate visibility and would, if approved, represent a danger to road users, the site is poorly served by public transport and the likelihood of walking and cycling offering a meaningful alternative to the private car is relatively low and the proposed remote car park would be insecure and would be susceptible to crime.

Application of General Interest - 06 March 2002
Application No 2002/520 Type full application
Location land at Union Road and, 745 Warwick Road, Solihull B91 3DG
Proposal DEMOLITION OF EXISTING BUILDINGS AND ERECTION OF 1 NO. 5-STOREY BLOCK AND 1 NO. 4-STOREY GATEHOUSE BLOCK COMPRISING 37 RESIDENTIAL FLATS PLUS ASSOCIATED ACCESS, PARKING. SERVICING, LANDSCAPING AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
 

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This is an unofficial guide. Views expressed are not those of Solihull Council or any of its agencies.
The official council website can be found at www.solihull.gov.uk

You can comment on individual planning applications on the councils website at:
www.solihull.gov.uk/wwwes/DC/weeklist.asp