I DO not object to the housing development at Perryfields in principle, as I am fully understanding of the need to create more housing, but I am really concerned about some of the issues related to the development.

The developers estimate there will be on average 1.16 cars per household.

This is a huge underestimation.

I have noticed as I drive through and around the various estates in Bromsgrove that houses have as many as five cars outside. The Perryfields area is already at complete stand-still in terms of traffic at anywhere around 9am and 5pm, and I see no development of a second road, or widening of any road, so it seems that by adding over a thousand houses to that area that the strain on the roads is going to be immense.

I have seen no plan to build another school - the schools here are already bursting.

I understand that the catchment area scheme has been scrapped and that any school is an option, but this amount of new houses, without an additional school plan is surely still going to put a strain on existing school pupil numbers, teachers and also, especially for the reason that parents are not bound by catchments and may have to travel further, the roads and traffic at times when parents want to drop off and fetch their children.

There is a concern that the local wildlife will be affected. There is a vole preservation area in Sanders Park being worked on to support an existing vole population along Battle Brook, which falls in the centre of this planned development.

Building houses on top of this area will severely undermine the efforts being made at Sanders Park.

Not to mention, of course, the huge amount of land that will be lost by wildlife and that has contributed to Bromsgrove maintaining its status as a green town and an attractive one.

It is like buying a house because you like the garden and then have someone tear up the garden and build sheds all over it.

Flooding is also a concern. More and more of the countryside and ‘natural drainage’ is being taken over with hard standing development.

We already have problems with flooding in Bromsgrove which I’m sure will be exacerbated by this development.

There are many other concerns, local services being put to strain - doctors surgeries, waste removal, landfill access, crime, and so on, and I do hope that these concerns are taken into consideration.

However I fear that this development will go ahead in full force and then the already existing people will be left feeling disgruntled with their local council and representatives, and people having moved into the new Perryfields estate will end up feeling like they have been tricked into moving there under false pretences.

Remember the Oakalls developments?

I believe house prices actually went down there after developers decided not to build the school, chapel and shop they were going to build.

I’m generally in support of the development, but this must be done in a way that takes into consideration the infrastructure that is needed to support it.

Philip Phelan