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The group said the plan for 340 homes on three sites (see map, above) would swell the village’s 10,000 population by 1,000.
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Yet it said no plans had been made on how roads, schools and health services would cope.
And it warns of further “garden grabbing” flat plans, the impact of a Waitrose supermarket bid and calls for a parking overhaul.
It is contained in the society’s official response to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s core strategy, which will decide where the authority will allow homes to be built to 2026.
The proposed housing sites are:
• 100 homes to the back of Knowle Primary School, off Hampton Lane.
• 90 homes at Middlefield, at the back of Arden School.
• 150 homes at Four Ashes Lane, Bentley Health.
Society chairman Leighton Jones told the council: “We are fast losing contact with the countryside as the size of the urban area has increased over the recent past and any significant increase in the built-up area would reduce the contact even further.”
He added: “None of the challenges has focussed on the need to ensure sufficient suitable infrastructure and services such as schools and health care, especially in areas where additional housing is planned.”
He questioned why other sites considered such as Grove Road and Jacobean Lane were not backed when they “do not seem to be that different from the sites that have been suggested”.
The proposed homes “would result in an increase in the population of in the order of 1,000 persons”. About 10,000 homes are planned throughout the borough.
Mr Jones wrote: “Many of these would be older persons or the young, all of whom make above average demands on medical services.”
This demand will rise as the existing population enters old age, he added.
Schools
And he said new families would “place a significant strain on the education system”.
He said: “The need for an additional form in each year at Arden has been recognised.
“The school is already short of classrooms and exists on a very constrained site, so it is difficult to see how this could be accommodated without the loss of significant sections of its sports fields.”
Mr Jones added: “No account has been made of the inevitable demands on the primary schools, all of which are operating at capacity.”
The Hampton Lane site was removed from the protected Green Belt in 2006, which Mr Jones said is a “weakness which should be addressed”.
He hit out at the way the council had come to back the proposed sites.
“We are also disappointed that this document is drafted in a ‘top down’ style, rather than reflecting the Government’s drive to make planning a ‘bottom up’ process.”
Garden grabbing
He also hit out at the strategy’s plan to allow “windfall” building on previously developed land, such as “garden grabbing” flats at the site of former houses. These would be on top of the three housing sites.
He said: “We strongly resist this suggestion.
“Knowle has suffered from a plethora of windfall developments in the recent past, mainly through the replacement of single houses with blocks of apartments which have served to change the character of the street scene.
“Once one such building has been allowed, its presence has been used to justify further similar development, leading to creeping change and increased density.”
Transport
Mr Jones said while the new Silverline bus service is an “improvement on previous arrangements, it does not meet the needs of residents travelling within Knowle or from Knowle to the neighbouring settlements”.
He said: “As a result traffic levels are high, especially in the High Street and along the spine roads such as Station Road.”
Shops
Mr Jones also called for a policy “resisting the loss of village shops and retail parades”. This would stop shops being allowed to convert to other uses, he adds. The village has seen shops changed to offices in recent years, for example.
In a clear reference to a controversial Waitrose plan for the village, he said: “In addition the scale of any extension of retail floorspace in Knowle should reflect the need of the local community and not include services of such a scale that they are designed to attract trade from outside the local community.
“We strongly support the policy of resisting major new developments in other, smaller, centres. These would have major impacts on the well-being of those centres and necessarily attract traffic from outside the locality.”
Allotments
He said: “We note that the provision of additional allotment space has not been included in this policy.
“Knowle is very short of such space, which is reflected in the excessive waiting lists.”
Marina plans
And Mr Jones hit out at controversial plans to build two marinas off the Grand Union Canal, off Jacobean Lane and the Warwick Road.
The council refused the plans, which will now be decided by appeal.
Mr Jones called for a council to “produce a strategy for canals and waterways in the borough, to ensure their protection while allowing suitable enjoyment”.
Car parks
Mr Jones calls for a “comprehensive revision” of the village’s car parks, possibly by cutting long-stay parking to short-stay with a new long-stay car park “on the periphery of the village”.
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