Land Off Windmill Lane, Balsall Common, West Midlands
Proposed New Homes & Public Open Space
Planning Background
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) has been undertaking a review of its Local Plan.
The Local Plan sets out how and where Solihull will develop in the future including identifying sites suitable for residential development.
The review has identified land off Windmill Lane, Balsall Common as suitable for new homes. The site is known as BC3 in the emerging Local Plan.
The Council cannot currently demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply and need to meet its housing shortfall.
The site provides an excellent opportunity to provide much needed housing, within a sustainable location.
The public consultation period for our proposals ended Sunday 26th November 2023.
Outline Planning Application
We will in due course be submitting an outline planning application following the consultation process to help the SMBC meet its housing requirement on a site that is sustainable and deliverable in the short term.
An outline planning application seeks to establish whether the scale and nature of a proposed development would be acceptable to the local planning authority, before a second fully detailed planning application is put forward, which is called a Reserved Matters.
This will include information about the exact layout, scale and appearance of the new homes, as well as the details of the open space and landscaping.
No development can take place on site until the Reserved Matters application has been consented.
Statutory consultees (e.g., Environment Agency and the Highways Authority) and local residents will have the opportunity to formally comment on the application direct with SMBC.
Affordable Housing
40% of the homes proposed will be affordable housing, comprising a mixture of affordable homes for rent and affordable routes to home-ownership (such as shared ownership, First Homes or rent to buy).
The affordable rented homes will be allocated to eligible households on the waiting list, with priority given to local residents or those with a local connection.
The provision of affordable housing is a significant benefit; it means that households who are currently ‘priced-out’ of the market will have greater opportunities to access good-quality housing.
We are keen to hear from young professionals and key workers who are looking to get on the housing ladder in the Balsall Common area.
Sustainability and Climate Change
Homes both new and existing account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
To mitigate climate change, as well as help keep down household energy costs, the proposed homes will achieve a significant reduction in carbon emissions (compared to the previous regulations) through a range of sustainable design measures including:
- enhanced fabric specification, triple glazing and Solar PV
- use of water efficiency measures to achieve the Government’s enhanced water consumption target of 110litres per person per day
- provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- incorporation of measure to adapt to climate change, including designing homes to minimise the risk of overheating, measures to reduce the risk of flooding and enhancement of site biodiversity
Site Specifics
22.8 Acre Site (9.2 Hectares)
Up to 150 New Homes
Public Open Space - A substantial area of landscaped public open space is proposed along the southern boundary.
This will provide a valuable and substantial green space, including an equipped children’s play area.
Ecology - The landscape design seeks to integrate the new housing into the landscape, retaining and enhancing the vast majority of boundary hedgerow and trees, along with the planting of additional trees and creation of public open space.
A range of wildlife friendly features will also be incorporated, including bat and bird boxes and hedgehog highways.
In addition soft landscaping will include habitats such as grasslands (featuring wildflower) and large vegetative buffers to the boundaries providing a permeable site for wildlife.
Highways and Access - The main vehicle access is a t-junction proposed from Windmill Lane as per the Council’s Concept masterplan.
As part of preparing our Transport Assessment we will undertake traffic counts and surveys of the local road network to help understand traffic patterns.
The assessment also includes other known committed and allocated development sites and takes into account traffic growth generally through to the end of the current Local Plan period.
Pedestrian connections have also been included within our proposals to provide existing residents access to the new public open space and children’s play areas.
Flooding and Drainage - The site is wholly situated within the Environment Agency’s designated Flood Zone 1.
These are areas with a less than 1 in 1,000 annual probability of flooding from rivers. This is the lowest probability of flooding and is considered suitable for residential properties in national policy.
Local Heritage - Located to the east of the site is the Berkswell Windmill. The windmill is in private ownership and is a grade II* listed building.
The overall design of the site has been landscape-led to integrate the proposals into its setting on the settlement edge of Balsall Common and protect the setting of the windmill.
Planning Background
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) has been undertaking a review of its Local Plan.
The Local Plan sets out how and where Solihull will develop in the future including identifying sites suitable for residential development.
The review has identified land off Windmill Lane, Balsall Common as suitable for new homes. The site is known as BC3 in the emerging Local Plan.
The Council cannot currently demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply and need to meet its housing shortfall.
The site provides an excellent opportunity to provide much needed housing, within a sustainable location.
The public consultation period for our proposals ended Sunday 26th November 2023.
Outline Planning Application
We will in due course be submitting an outline planning application following the consultation process to help the SMBC meet its housing requirement on a site that is sustainable and deliverable in the short term.
An outline planning application seeks to establish whether the scale and nature of a proposed development would be acceptable to the local planning authority, before a second fully detailed planning application is put forward, which is called a Reserved Matters.
This will include information about the exact layout, scale and appearance of the new homes, as well as the details of the open space and landscaping.
No development can take place on site until the Reserved Matters application has been consented.
Statutory consultees (e.g., Environment Agency and the Highways Authority) and local residents will have the opportunity to formally comment on the application direct with SMBC.
Affordable Housing
40% of the homes proposed will be affordable housing, comprising a mixture of affordable homes for rent and affordable routes to home-ownership (such as shared ownership, First Homes or rent to buy).
The affordable rented homes will be allocated to eligible households on the waiting list, with priority given to local residents or those with a local connection.
The provision of affordable housing is a significant benefit; it means that households who are currently ‘priced-out’ of the market will have greater opportunities to access good-quality housing.
We are keen to hear from young professionals and key workers who are looking to get on the housing ladder in the Balsall Common area.
Sustainability and Climate Change
Homes both new and existing account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
To mitigate climate change, as well as help keep down household energy costs, the proposed homes will achieve a significant reduction in carbon emissions (compared to the previous regulations) through a range of sustainable design measures including:
- enhanced fabric specification, triple glazing and Solar PV
- use of water efficiency measures to achieve the Government’s enhanced water consumption target of 110litres per person per day
- provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- incorporation of measure to adapt to climate change, including designing homes to minimise the risk of overheating, measures to reduce the risk of flooding and enhancement of site biodiversity
