Holly Lane Development

06/02/2008

Unfortunately, despite all of our efforts, the Government Planning Inspector decided to over-rule the decision of Solihull Council and grant permission to local estate agent Colin Johnson, as a director of the Property Development Company, Leycester Holdings, to demolish properties on Holly Lane and build houses and three story apartments on the rear gardens. This not only impacts on the residents of Holly Lane but also those in Moseley Drive who live behind the development. Instead of being able to enjoy the privacy of their gardens, they will be overlooked by the three story blocks. The only alteration required by the planning inspector is that the clear glass on the third story of the apartments must be replaced with opaque glass. Not a lot of consolation for the people whose quality of life will be permanently diminished.

The village as a whole will be impacted by this development, as Holly Lane, a bus route and one of the main routes in and out of the village, will become even busier that it is at the moment. The current problems will be further increased by residents of this new estate; with possibly 50 or so vehicles, using the road from the estate, into Holly Lane.

At a Public Meeting on 28th January Councillor Sleigh gave an explanation for the decision made by the planning inspector and commented that Solihull Council had fought very hard to stop this development. As residents we all know what a bad decision this is but unfortunately the views of the local people seem to be valueless when it comes to ‘garden grabbing’ and the Holly Lane decision demonstrates why the law on Brownfield sites needs to be changed. To quote an editorial in the Birmingham Mail “…a trend which is driven by the greed of property developers rather than any far sighted plan to provide homes that are badly needed”

The 10 page report can be read on the Solihull website here.