Thousands of new homes, shops, schools and facilities given go-ahead for site

The Langley site neighbouring Walmley in Sutton Coldfield is a huge swathe of green belt land that was released for development five years ago.

A total of 5,500 new homes, shops, schools, medical centres and leisure facilities will now fill the colossal site after councillors voted unanimously to pass the application at a Birmingham City Council Planning Committee this week. The decision brings an end to a five-year planning process.

But at the planning committee councillors labelled the consultation process-led by Birmingham City Council – as “abysmal.”

Councillor David Barrie claimed the council had been ‘missing in action’ and that “it was ridiculous for residents to have to read through hundreds of documents on an online planning portal, without any kind of guidance, for a development akin to a small town.”

Boasting homes, schools and health care facilities, the scheme is more akin to a small village than a regular run-of-the-mill housing application. The site is set to include 2,000 ‘affordable’ homes, with 14,000 residents in total – 5,000 under 18, 8,000 of working age and 1,000 over 65.

The massive development on greenbelt land will also include one secondary school, and up to three primary schools together with play areas, open spaces, parks, a sports hub and a pavilion, plus all the necessary transport network.

Sutton Coldfield City Councillor Ken Wood, representing Walmley and Minworth, said: “We fought this all the way, but that battle being lost, we have been determined to make the best of this for both our existing residents and the ones who will occupy the new houses.”

Councillors also raised concerns regarding transportation, claiming there had been inadequate provision for private parking, coupled with insufficient public transport. A park-and-ride, and ‘Sprint’ bus system as well as a shuttle from the estate to Sutton Coldfield town centre have all been promised by TfWM, but no timescale had yet been revealed.

Councillor Gareth Moore said: “I have family who live in Sutton Coldfield and they already have problems with the transport, and I imagine this won’t improve after 6,000 houses are built there. If we don’t cater for that now it’s only going to get worse.

“We’re building 6,000 homes here, that’s going to be an awful lot of on-street parking. I’d rather have a situation where people are having empty driveways than having lots of cars cluttering up the pavements.”

Planners also claimed that the new development would be ‘exemplary’ in design and not just standard builder’s designs, but councillors were quick to point out that there was no clarification of how this “exemplary” rule would be either defined or applied.

A series of further meetings are now planned as councillors will look to hammer out the detail of the plans- the next covering infrastructure is planned in March.