DETAILS of why two canal marina plans for Knowle were rejected by council bosses have been placed online.Councillors had fears about the affect on the Green Belt, flooding and listed buildings.
The first plan, for Stripes Hill Farm off the Warwick Road, was rejected by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council because of Green Belt concerns.
The official decision says: “It is considered that the proposal amounts to inappropriate development as it constitutes an engineering operation that does not maintain the openness of the Green Belt and it conflicts with the purposes of including land in the Green Belt.
“Having regard to the scale and artificial nature of the engineering operations and extensive re-grading, together with the associated urbanising effects, it is considered to have a significant impact on the openness of the Green Belt.
“The proposed development is therefore harmful, by definition and by other harm, and substantial weight is given to this factor.”
And it said there are not “very special circumstances” which would allow Green Belt development to “clearly outweigh the harm caused”.
The decision for the second plan, for land off Jacobean Lane, also says it would “not maintain the openness of the Green Belt”.
It says: “Having regard to the scale and artificial nature of the engineering operations and extensive re-grading, together with the associated urbanising effects, it is considered to have a significant impact on the openness of the Green Belt.”
The development is “harmful” and does not amount to very special circumstances, it adds.
It adds the plan would also “unacceptably detract from the setting of the agricultural context of the grade II Listed Building, Grove Farm and its curtilage listed buildings”.
The decision concludes: “Insufficient information has been submitted to demonstrate that the proposal would not result in flooding on and off site.
“In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the proposal is considered to pose an unacceptable risk of flooding.”
The schemes were rejected by the council’s planning committee on December 17.
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