Beacon Action Group urge the local community to consider how the proposed development on protected greenbelt and the restoration of Great Barr Hall will impact on you and this area.
The planning application includes restoration works to Great Barr Hall turning it into a 600 capacity banqueting centre and the construction of 57 dwellings, which will be built across the registered historic parkland and protected green belt that surrounds the hall and lakes, (with 38 of which proposed along Chapel Lane/Suttons Drive boundaries).
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Just to say I and my family are totally against this or any other housing development on our green belt,I live in Coronation Road and I moved to this area because of the tranquility and views of
the surrounding area.As for building 59 unaffordable dwellings,well, unaffordable to local people
just seems like another developer trying to make a fast buck at the expense of the local
residents and as for them restoring the hall,do me a favour and do not insult peoples inteligence
this is purely about financial gain.If this is allowed you can say goodbye to any greenbelt in the surrounding are as this will just give the green light to more and more houses being built.
Also why do we need a wedding/conference centre when there is a Holiday Inn hotel which aiready caters for this and what about the additional trafic problems this will cause,need I say more.
The traffic in Chapel Lane each morning is horrendous and I canno’t beleive any such plans
are even being considered,obviously these people do not sit in Chapel Lane for 30 minutes every morning trying to get to work,the traffic backs up from the motorway and blocks the top of Chapel
Lane causing tailbacks right back to St Margarets church and with additional traffic using the lane
as a rat run it is just gridlocked every morning.
Thanks for your comments and support against this application. Please ensure you object and get your letters in to Walsall council this week. If you need any help to object let me know and we’ll get in touch directly. Thanks
Very short sighted and hypocritical view, it wasn’t very long ago that your house then built on green belt land spoilt someone else’s “tranquillity and views of the surrounding area”.
Hi to all,
Thank you to all involved in the Beacon Action Group.
I am against the development and have scanned the objections and there is one aspect I cannot fathom.
“How can the rules of developing on greenbelt land be overcome by pure motive for profit making. If the current owners cannot renovate Great Barr Hall as a stand alone development then so be it. How can the building of the 59 dwellings be used to justify the financial aspect……”
Is Walsall council not concerned about the implications and the precedence it it creating??
Any comments are very much welcomed. Many thanks.
COULD NIT MAKE THE MEETING BUT AM TOTALLY AGAINST THIS AS TRAFFIC IS ALREADY A NIGHTMARE FOR ME TRYING TO GET OUT OF CORONATION RD 8AM ON A WEEK DAY -CHAPEL LANE IS BACKED UP TO THE CHURCH DAILY
WE NEED GREENBELT AREAS AND THIS AREA HAS ALWAYS PRIDED ITSELF ON ITS COMMUNITY VILLAGE FEEL DUE TO THE GREENBELT LAND AND LACK OF ESTATES SPRINGING UP
THE OLD HALL IS A BEAUTIFUL BUILDING AND WOULD BE BETTER SUITED TO A GOOD QULITY RESTAURANT WITH ACCESS FROM QUESLETT RD RATHER THAN MORE HOUSES !!!!
I HOPE THIS DOES NIT HAPPEN HOW CAN I OPPOSE THE PLANS
SALLY BARKER
Hi Sally, thanks for sharing your views. Please see our how to object page: http://wp.me/P4dbAH-2q
If you have have questions please email us: beaconactiongroup@gmail.com
Paul
I think the reality is not everyone who went yesterday went with closed mind. You and Steve both support UKIP and will NEVER support and housing on greenelt and I have no isssue with this because you have made your position clear.
What I wanted to get out of yesterday was straight answera:
1. Is BAG like UKIP against all development on Green Belt?
2. if the answer is no and like me will support a proper development onbgreen beltthen can they confirm whether they would ever support housing along Chapel Lane?
I think ad this site is run by BAG they answer without ANY political slant from any patry or organisation. Me and my wife attended yesterday and sadly received no straight answer in relation to these points…
BAG please respond to these 2 questions asap!
Having seen it all before, as in the numerous public meetings fronted by Bruce George, pre proposed Nether Hall development, I’m being realistic, not defeatist, when I state that this development WILL go ahead. I can only feel for local residents who will be subjected to noise, dust and disruption from the building works as residents of Nether Hall and Park Farm have endured for several years. Apart from concerns regarding increased traffic congestion, what about damage to road surfaces, particularly by heavy site traffic ( currently very topical in view of the great number of pot holes on our roads)
Sympathising with resident of Nether Hall, I can only add that I hope that Bovis will not have any involvement in this development.
I do feel for anyone connected with Bovis, whether on Park Farm or the continual issues on Netherhall where many were sold a dud deal.
This is totally different from Bovis and is in no way connected with them.
I do feel that with the history of Bovis that I ask for people when in discussions about this take Bovis out of the equation. What went on with that was awful. However this is not BOVIS MARK 2 this is BCG LAKES MARK 1 and totally different.
I was part of the labour party that in 2012 put out a leaflet warning people of forthcoming work, I was really concerned we would have a Bovis Mark 2.
I am now convinced of the following
– the owners integrity
– the quality of Lapworth Architects
– Walsall Planning have got their act together and can enforce strict but fair rules
Yes asking a lot I know but Bovis had failed promises, does that mean BCG Lakes (new development) should be judged by their very low standards,
Very gullible and naive should believe this as it is difficult to see how can development of less than 100 highly profitable over sized properties can yield enough profit to build the extravagant banqueting hall that is proposed.
Therefore one must convince themselves
– the land owners have a bad accountants or have very large pockets. One does not get rich by wasting money.
– Lapworth Architects have presented a fantastic proposal, surely will maximise the cost of the project. You can work it out in whose favour. Hope they don’t bankrupt the land owners before the project is completed.
– checkout how many of the Walsall Planning officers that worked on the Bovis project are working on this project. Development for sake of development!
– who will pick the tab if the project is incomplete?
– long term health cost of housing less than 100metres from high voltage pillion. European countries have a planning ban on such development.
Judge for yourselves the economical, environmental, social and health benefits of the project.
Hi Nether Hall Resident, great and very pertinent comments. Quite a number of your neighbours residing in Nether Hall Park whether verbally or in local newspapers of on local websites have now highlighted the appalling way that Bovis Homes have treated homeowners/residents on the development over a number of years. I’ve little doubt unfortunately, that complaints regarding the disgraceful treatment of their customers in Nether Hall Park from this company will continue to made in the weeks, months and years to come; and the very last thing that any of us want whether we reside in Pheasey/Park Farm, Chapel Lane, Coronation Road, The Grove, Merrions Close or Nether Hall Park are any more houses in Great Barr Park.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your message.
I have asked our Chairman to contact you tomorrow. We would of course welcome any help you can offer, it is very much appreciated.
Many thanks
Annabel Smith
I work for the Campaign to Protect Rural England and am responding to a contact to Gerald Kells for help. Some years ago our planning expert put in quite a lot of effort on the original application
some of that may be of use to you and I will check our files on Thursday morning. I know we will have our original response some of which may be relevant. We may also still have the documents from the original application. If this is of use can you let me have a more direct email address rather than this to respond to; please contact me on the following email address. Hope we can be of help. Note that our current website is under significant reconstruction and is out of date. We cover the old admin area of Staffordshire and this is just inside our area. Tel 01785 277890, voicemail available for out of hours.
As a Nether Hall homeowner I have grown very very sceptical about promises made by developers. It was almost 7 years ago when we purchased our house on the promise that large parts of the parkland would be redevloped and that everyone in Great Barr and further afield would be able to enjoy cycling and rambling through the fox plantation, High Wood, Holly Wood etc. This would be supplemented by adventures in the rebuilt walled garden and viewing the unsilted Perry Brook for the Gothic Bridge.
We knew there were areas that would be inaccesible i.e. the ponds and the Hall itself but the refurbished green areas would make up for that.
Instead we sit with no access and Bovis never respond to very polite e-mails / letters about the future of the devlopment.
We now have a pincer movement from the other side of the park. Their community benefits statement already makes it clear that this will be private land so any access will be a gesture of goodwill. The Christmas deadline date also indicates to me that they are more than happy to play games to get their application through which is not a good sign.
Any redevelopment of the hall and the restoration of green belt will be at the very end of the development. 50 plus high spec houses will take an age to put up and sell so God know what the state of the hall will be like in another decade.
Great Barr doesn’t need more house, a mistake was made to allow the Nether Hall Estate to be built without any environmental or social benefit to either then homeowners on the estate or the wider community. There has been no allowance for the additional populace in terms of schools or GPs. Another estate will just have further impact.
The pledge to restore the hall is at the beginning of the development AND you pre sell these kind of house before they are even built. I Would predict they would be sold within weeks of being put up for sale.
The hall restoration can be put in as a condition of the planning consent and therefore be enforced. I will keep my reservations about Walsall’s planning Dpt to one side at the moment.
Dear all,
Please visit http://www.lapwortharchitects.com to review the community benefits which will stem from this application.
Hopefully the document will also help address some of the misconceptions regarding timing which have been widely published.
Regards
Lapworth Architects
What community benefit is there as the community is not allowed in the new Great Barr hall area, the Hall does not resemble the old hall as it would be 3 to 4 times bigger and why is the need for this size building.
Also the traffic would make a large impact on Chapel lane which is already a busy road, I’m sure there will be cars coming from the new planned executive homes opposite the homes already on Chapel lane that would cause traffic problems, and with building work going on round Chapel lane would it be closed for such large construction being planned for?
You sound very similar to Beacon Action Group, sure your not the same person?
Hi Marie,
It would be an interesting development indeed for Planning Officers at Walsall MBC to actually insist that full renovation of the Hall is completed before anything else occurs. An interesting thought, but unlikely to happen in reality.
Myself; and many of my friends and neighbours are completely opposed to the building of even one more house/apartment etc etc in the green belt Great Barr Park, let alone another 57.
A point well worth thinking about Steve ! Perhaps the planners should insist the Hall be renovated BEFORE the houses are built ! There should be absolutely NO agreement reached unless the local residents have full access to the surrounding areas including the lake.
Hi Paul,
Your comments regarding the applicants intentions (or otherwise) to fulfill their promises to fully renovate Great Barr Hall seem justified to my view. There is absolutely nothing to prevent the applicants from dumping (another) 57 houses in the green belt Great Barr Park, sell those properties, move the cash from the sales overseas, file for bankruptcy without doing the necessary proposed renovations to the Hall; and then promptly jump aboard the first ship, boat train or plane and head off to probably sunnier climes to be re-united with a very nice good few million pounds in cash!!!!!!!
Two excellent and very well presented posts by Elaine and Steve, I would go one further and say that Great Barr is already blighted and its infrastructure cannot cope with the addition of Asda and Nether Hall as it is, it never will be able to cope with the extra traffic and there is zero possibility of it ever being able to cope. Adding this development will only suffice to make the other side of Great Barr suffer the same fate, when it already struggles to cope as it is! Anyone that disagrees should spend a few hours in Chapel Lane and Coronation Road during the busy periods.
I for one will be coming along to this public meeting and i do hope that this one is made more openly known than some others that have been held over the years with very poor notification for reasons that i can only imagine have been by design. I for one will certainly shout from the roof tops about this one no soon as i know when and where, will also happily help out to distribute leaflets regarding it should this be necessary and will also aim to convince my elderly mother in law to attend, a resident and home owner in Coronation road too.
I feel that the timing of this application was very well thought out by the applicants which must alert everyone to their ethics, this then worries me about how genuine they are about fulfilling the whole application. It would be very simple to build the houses and then not continue with the renovation! I am very pleased that the council have extended the deadline and they should be thanked for that, although personally i think the deadline should have been extended without the need pressure from anyone under the circumstances!
A point that worries me a lot is the mention on your Facebook page of the chapel not being part of the future plans, any future plans for refurbishment of Great Barr Hall should most certainly include the chapel!
Hi Elaine,
Excellent post; and i fully agree with you, as i’m sure a good number of other local residents across the wider Great Barr area will concur, that this proposed further despoiling of our local green belt and added congestion to the already very busy Chapel Lane and Coronation Road, will be of absolute zero benefit to local residents; and is nothing more than a number of individuals cashing in by dumping another 57 unwanted houses in Great Barr Park.
I trust that large numbers of residents from Chapel Lane, Coronation Road, Pheasey/Park Farm, Nether Hall Park etc will be in attendance at the forthcoming public meeting in regard of this issue.
Absolute disgrace. Not thinking about the residents that already live in the area. The traffic on Chapel lane is chaos now, Coronation Road already feels like a main Road in rush hour. I think the residents on Coronation Road please show your support for us not wanting our surrounds being ruined by this development.
Thanks for your thoughts Elaine. Keep an eye out on here for updates, as we go through the planning application details.
There are many questions that we still don’t have answers to despite the two consultation meetings that the architects and owners held. Traffic is a massive concern as is the fact that this development will have no benefits for the local community as we will not have access to the greenbelt.
Hope to see you at the public meeting, please spread the word. We will distributing a newsletter at some point next weekend.
Just in case anyone has not been informed or received a leaflet through their door, There is another public meeting arranged on Thursday 20th February at Great Barr Methodist Church Hall, Sundial Lane. It starts at 7.30 PM and will include Jim Carver, a UKIP MEP candidate speaking against this development.
I must point out that this meeting is organised by myself on Behalf of the Sandwell & Walsall UKIP branches and not in anyway anything to do with BAG. I would like to further point out that we are not in anyway attempting to make this a political debate, but merely supporting the fight against the development due to the massive public outrage that has been clear since the application.
Please try to join us to keep the momentum going in this fight to save our green belt. We will have fresh information to convey by the time Thursday comes along.