Mark joined local residents at the start of the Public Inquiry into Wain Estates (Land) Ltd’s appeal against Sandwell decision to reject their plans for Peak House Farm, on Tuesday 9 July, and spoke. The site is part of the Green Belt, but also enjoys other legal protection in addition to this. As other objectors raised its importance as part of the Green Belt, the traffic and air quality concerns, and historical environment, we focused on the sites importance as a wildlife corridor. These are the comments we submitted to the Inquiry.

Wain’s proposal is contrary to National Planning Policy Framework policy to protect the Green Belt and preserve nature sites and natural habitat.

Peak House Farm has longstanding protection not only as Green Belt, but also as a Site of Local Interest for Nature Conservation due to the ancient hedgerows that criss-cross the site. (These hedgerows are protected by Ancient Hedgerow legislation.) 

In 2018, the site was upgraded from a SLINC (Site of Local Interest for Nature Conservation), for the ancient hedgerows, to a SINC (Site of Interest for Nature Conservation)) for conservation of the whole site, on the recommendation of the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust. 

This was because:

• It forms a significant wildlife corridor between Merrion’s Wood Local Nature Reserve and the Hill Farm Bridge Fields SINC, and is important in connecting Sandwell Valley and the inner areas of the conurbation to the wider countryside.
• It supports local bird and animal populations and is a feeding area for other species, such as bats.
• Trees known to be on the site include: Sycamore, White Willow, Oak, Ash, Hazel, Field Maple, Elder, and several other varieties.
• Wildlife known to be on the site include: Grey Heron, Red Fox, Buzzard, and Eurasian Badger.  The badgers and their setts are protected by the Protection of Badgers Act.

The farm itself has been continuously used for meadow crop, horse grazing, and cattle grazing, in recent years. It has also been used to grow potatoes, and there were cows on the site when I was at Dartmouth High School in the late 1970s. So it has been a productive farm with livestock. This only changed when the horses were evicted from the site, by the current landowners, in 2019.

The fields are also of historical value.

• The field patterns on the farm are thought to date from at least 1750 and possibly much earlier, and the site supports a wide range of typical farmland habitats which have been established onsite for over 250 years. 
• The site is also known to include the remains of a medieval moated farmhouse, and this historic environment should not be built on and obliterated. 
• Many of the typical farmland habitats present on site are uncommon within Birmingham and the Black Country and are rare in Sandwell.

Since it was designated as a SINC in 2018, a herd of deer have started appearing on the site. And there are also bats and owls that fly over the site, including some rare species of bats and some unique examples of different species sharing the same roost. This unique example of bats sharing the same roost, along with the ancient hedgerows, mean that Peak House Farm is an irreplaceable habitat that should be preserved for future generations.

These recent additions reinforce the site’s importance as a wildlife corridor and natural habitat. It is therefore, even more important to maintain the site as a natural habitat that enriches the lives and wellbeing of local residents and the wider community.

Finally, there are brownfield sites in Sandwell that should be utilised before encroaching into the Green Belt, and there are numerous previously approved developments that have not been built. Some of these previously approved applications date back more than a decade, with landowners and speculative developers doing only the bare minimum to keep the approval in tact. Developers should be required to complete previously approved applications before opening up the Green Belt.