Planning officers anxious about business park plan

SOLIHULL’S planning committee has been advised to throw out plans to expand Birmingham Business Park.
Proposals had been put forward to create four industrial buildings, a service yard and around 180 car parking spaces.
Those residents living in nearby Blackfirs Lane and Coleshill Heath Road had already raised concerns about the noise and disturbance that would arise.
While not all of their arguments were accepted by council officials, there were sufficient concerns for them to recommend that councillors reject the application.
A report published last month suggested that there were particular questions about lack of public transport links to the site, as well as adding to traffic jams and queuing in an already congested area.
A formal decision on the plans had been expected back in February and again earlier in the month, but in both cases the item was dropped from the council agenda at relatively short notice.
It remains to be seen if the developers are likely to modify the plans to address the issues identified by officers.
The application is the latest of several which have fed into concerns about over-development in Marston Green and the impact that successive schemes are having on the village’s infrastructure.
A separate plan to build 68 homes off Chelmsley Lane has now been submitted to the planning department and is expected to go to committee later this year.