Sadie and Mark have submitted the following comments to the Planning Inspectorate regarding Wain’s plans to build houses on the Peak House Farm site.

As members of the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, we are also concerned about the impact the loss of habitat will have on local wildlife. Recognizing the need to preserve undeveloped land for wildlife is a material planning consideration so this proposal to encroach into the Green Belt  should be rejected. The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust says the site forms an important green corridor across the local landscape, noting “typical farmland habitats present on site are uncommon within the Birmingham and the Black Country and rare in the Sandwell borough.”

The site is known to be home to badgers and at least one badger sett, both protected by the Protection of Badgers Act. There are a number of species of bats that rely on access to the area, from Wilderness Woods and Merrion’s Wood, including some rare species and some unique examples of different species sharing the same roost. There is also a herd of deer that visit the site, and any development would disrupt the access they enjoy due to the long established wildlife corridor created by the Green Belt.

The area has historically been Green Belt or green wedge with the leaders of Birmingham, Walsall, and the old West Bromwich agreeing that they should leave green space between their towns to protect their distinct identities. This proposal threatens that and would allow urban sprawl to blur the boundaries between the three places. We also feel that this development would be inappropriate for the following reasons.

• This proposal is contrary to National Planning Policy Framework policy to protect the Green Belt. This spurious proposal does not demonstrate the very exceptional circumstances required to outweigh protection of the Green Belt, and proposes an unnecessary “countryside park” close to the existing Sandwell Valley Country Park.
• The site has been designated as a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC) by Sandwell Council, and the hedgerows in the fields are protected by Ancient Hedgerow legislation, which affords them additional, criminal, protection and so contrary to the interests of nature conservation. Sandwell Council have also designated the site as unsuitable for housing.
• There are the remains of a medieval moated farmhouse on the site, and this local “heritage asset” should be preserved, and there are likely to be other archaeological remains on the site that should not be disturbed.
• Sandwell already has the lowest percentage of Green Belt, and poorest air quality, of the four Black Country boroughs.  If anything, Sandwell needs more trees, not less, to improve its air quality and reduce pollutants by absorbing nitrogen dioxide and microscopic airborne particles. Peak House Farm is an important part of the green corridor preventing urban sprawl and separating neighbourhoods in Walsall and Sandwell.
• Wilderness Lane and Sycamore Road are virtually impassable at school drop-off and pick-up times  even now. Additional houses and cars will make this even worse, and three years of construction work will pose the real risk of serious accidents occurring.
• Opening up the site to the public will increase the risk of travellers trying to use the site, as they have already done once, last year. (This often coincides with workmen doing roadworks in the area.) The tenant farmer has taken steps to prevent a recurrence of this that would mean offenders would be liable to being charged with breaking and entering in addition to Common Law eviction. We are suspicious that such a recurrence, once the site has been opened to the public would be used as an excuse to abandon the “countryside park” and expand the area of housing.