A CONTROVERSIAL marina plan for the Warwick Road, Knowle should be approved, council officers say – but they urge another off Jacobean Lane be thrown out.Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council members will be asked to agree with the recommendations at a special meeting of the planning committee on Thursday.
The plan for 223 berths, 106 parking spaces, an office, toilets and showers at Stripes Hill Farm, by Wyndley Garden Centre is backed by a planning officer.
In a report they say the plan would not “cause undue harm” to the Grand Union Canal locks as it is already busy and would undergo landscape changes.
It adds: “The proposal is not expected to generate significant noise, disturbance or result in a loss of visual amenity to existing surrounding residents, or cause harm to highway safety.”
Some residents raised fears that extra traffic in and out of the site, into the existing farm track road, would pose a danger to cars coming down hilly Warwick Road.
The reports admits development in the Green Belt is “inappropriate” but this was outweighed by a “relatively modest visual impact”.
The need for such a facility, lack of alternatives, “regenerative benefits” and “support from all tiers of planning policy” backs approval, it adds.
Some 35 letters opposed the plan, including Meriden MP Caroline Spelman, plus a petition with 162 signatures.
Comments included “access totally unsuitable, threat to highway safety” and “noise/pollution from boat repair operations”.
The Government can intervene and over-rule the council if it wishes.
The second scheme would not cause “undue harm to landscape and ecology features” the report says.
Not would it “generate significant noise, disturbance or result in a loss of visual amenity to existing surrounding residents, or cause harm to highway safety”.
Yet it adds that “extensive” landscape changes would “unacceptably detract” from nearby grade II listed Grove Farm.
The plan, for 140 berths, a new road from Jacobean Lane and 40 spaces, would make “extensive changes to the rural character of the Green Belt” and “extensive harm” to its openness.
The report concludes: “The need/demand for a marina in this location in terms of its regenerative benefits fails to amount to very special circumstances to justify such inappropriate development.”
Some 121 letters objected to the plan, including Mrs Spelman and two petitions with 335 names.
The meeting will be held at 6pm on Thursday at the council’s offices in Solihull town centre. The public are welcome to attend. Click here for details.
Click here for other marina stories from The Silhillian.
