Meriden MP wades into row over green belt

URBS IN RURE: Around two thirds of Solihull is designated green belt,
but the borough's attitude to development this week sparked a row

A ROW has erupted over the future of Solihull's green belt, amid suggestions that more of the land should be released for housing.
Meriden MP Caroline Spelman has insisted that the borough has already "sacrificed" large tracts of space for developments which benefit the whole region, including the NEC and airport expansion.
Her comments came in response to suggestions by Sion Simon, the Labour candidate for West Midlands Mayor, that Solihull had shied away from hard decisions.
In a debate this week, the ex-Erdington MP said: "People want new housing but don't want it on their green belt, they want it on someone else's green belt... We need to start those difficult conversations.
"And the most difficult conversation is with Solihull - which has the great bulk of the wealth and a huge pressure on land and has very expensive land.
"There's a huge resistance to development on the green belt and resistance to ceding planning powers."
In a statement yesterday Mrs Spelman defended Solihull's record and argued that the best way to address the housing shortage was to clear-up brownfield sites.
"Mr Simon has failed to acknowledge that Solihull has in recent years, already sacrificed much of its green belt in order to support strategically important regional and national infrastructure.
"[The Mayor will] not have any planning powers or the power to pressure individual member of the Combined Authority into taking more than their fair share.
"Our borough council made it clear when we joined the West Midlands Combined Authority that Solihull is not there for the combined authority to 'cherry pick’ in order to meet other local authorities housing deficit and I stand by that message."
Her comments touch upon old suspicions that closer partnership between council areas would put more pressure on Solihull to release land to meet the needs of more densely-populated neighbours.
For the people of North Solihull there would be concerns that their two main stretches of green belt land - the Cole Valley and the buffer between Chelmsley Wood and Marston Green - could be further developed. These sites were already placed under pressure by the needs of the Regeneration project.

• The election for the Mayor of the West Midlands will take place on Thursday, May 4. Look out for more news and a profile of all the candidates in the weeks between now and polling day.