Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council says the site off Hampton Road has ‘excellent access to local services and facilities’.
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It is one of three sites in Knowle and Bentley Heath being put forward by the council that it would let developers build on in the years to 2026.
A formal consultion on the long-mooted plans has now begun.
It is the result of work to meet Labour-imposed housing targets – but the coalition Government said councils can decide whether they want the housing to go ahead.
A Liberal Democrat / Labour coalition ousted the Conservatives for control of the council on May 6.
The council said the homes are needed to meet affordable housing needs and balanced the need for Greent Belt with ‘necessary new development’. A total, 8,400 houses would be built in the borough.
It says of the Hampton Road site: “Release of the site would have a significant impact of green belt functions and openness and would set a precedent for further green belt land release from surrounding sites, but is well contained and could provide a defensible green belt boundary.”
It acknowledges the site has a role in the ‘Meriden gap’ by ‘safeguarding the countryside from encroachment and helping prevent coalescence between settlements’.
Building work would take a year to two years, it says.
The council’s ‘emerging core strategy’ also proposes 90 homes for Middlefield, a field to the back of Arden School.
It says this has ‘good access to local services and facilities’. Part of the site would be released and 40 per cent would be affordable.
Yet the council again acknowledges that this ‘would have a significant impact of green belt functions and openness and would set a precedent for further green belt land release from surrounding sites’.
Other sites were considered and rejected by SMBC in Knowle (click here for full details of all sites).
They are: land at Grove Road; Jacobean Lane; land at Golden End, Kenilworth Road / Kixley Lane; land at Hampton Road (another site); land to north east of Grove Road; Knowle Nurseries and land between 114-116 Kenilworth Road.
Yet a bid for 150 homes off Four Ashes Road, Bentley Heath, by Gate Lane is included in the consultation – despite a council officer assessment urging against this.
The assessment says: “Accessibility to primary schools from the southern part of the site is outside of desirable parameters, so not within a desirable location for family housing.
“Release of the site would have a significant impact of green belt functions and
openness and would set a precedent for further green belt land release from
surrounding sites.
“Local wildlife site is a soft constraint, but loss should be avoided if there are better
alternatives.”
Other Dorridge and Bentley Heath sites considered and rejected are: and at Norton Green Lane; land to the West of Earlswood Road; Four Ashes Road / Box Trees Road; The Ards, Dorridge Road; Elm Farm, Darley Green Road and Ivy House Farm, Henwood Lane.
Click here for details of all Dorridge sites.
The consultation closes on December 10. The council will be holding a drop in session at Knowle Library on October 28 between 2.45pm and 6.45pm and from 11am to 3pm at Solihull Library on November 6.
See details of the consultation and documents here.
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