The evidence is quite plain to see that these fields are in constant use by dog walkers by the amount of mess left, local children also leave their evidence broken bottles, empty beer tins, the odd burnt out car,joggers and cyclists ? i doubt by looking at the band of protesters that any of them have ever ridden a bicycle or jogged over on the fields, the club its self will take up a miniscule portion of the site and once established will attract wild life, seems to me like a not on our doorstep attitude.

Do you really think we want to move??.we have been here for years!!!.And as for wildlife..? Have the residents seen where we are? midsummers eve bowls match birds r singin,bees a buzzin and the nats still bite!! we dont play late nite so the owls an bats r ok.."NOT IN MY BACK YARD" you say, wish it was mine.....

As a frequent jogger and also a protester I and many others from Halesowen athletic club run regularly over Coombeswood. I understand that the cricketers don't want to move but have been backed into a corner.When you remove a habitat for wildlife many species are wiped out.My concern is for everywhere this is happening to, not just here. If St Modwens were not just about greed they would let the cricketers have a long term contract and maybe invest into renovating the many derelict houses that exist. This area is for everyone and has been for the last thousand years. Please don't be misled into thinking there is a benefit for anyone other than the shareholders of St Modwens.

wildlife at coombes wood, we have pipistrel bats, we have kestrels, we have buzzards battling with kestrels and crows in the skys above, we have squirrels,we have Stan,

To my mind it's the thin end of the (green) wedge. Once building on the land gets the go ahead then who's to say what plans they will come up with in the future to extend the development of the land. I'm a big cricket fan and hope the club can get a new home but not on greenbelt land.

Goucho, if you go into coombes wood cricket club and peruse the plans the building in question will be a like for like building, the rest of the "greenbelt" land you will probably find cannot be built on, look what happened to the house at the end of graham cresent.

As a cricketer from the club, i feel strongly about the move as it is the only choice we have, and as it is on our doorstep for most members, it couldn't be more perfect for us all. People are arguing against the wildlife, but how i see it you all walk your dogs down that field, yet if that field wawasn't there, where would you walk it? would you take the effort to walk it else where everyday cause how i see it your all taking the easier option. That cricket club has the brightist future for us young cricketers, and we all have drams that you are going to kill.

Re wizard of oz's comments: if you really believe that St Modwen are offering to build a new cricket club in the green wedge because of their love of the smack of leather on willow, then check out chairman Anthony Glossop's comments in the Feb 12 editon of the Birmingham Post. He says "A lot of property companies just hold on to land but we never buy a property just to hold on to it." As St Modwen own 75% of the Coombes Wood green wedge and do not intend to just hold on to it, I would like to hear then exactly what they do intend to do with it. Perhaps Anthony Glossop is going to hold an annual St Modwen's shareholders' picnic there?

I would also like to add that your attempts to disparage the users of the green wedge are counter productive to your case. If you are a member the cricket club, this rudeness does not reflect well upon your club and makes the development proposals even less agreeable than they already are. If you are an employee of St Modwen, then it must be said that you are not very good at your job.

Re Ol's comments - Dear Ol, beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I hope you will not feel too used and abused when you find out that St Modwen's sudden love of cricket is only a temporary infatuation. Just a few months ago the same company was busily schmoozing Cradley Heathens speedway fans with plans to develop a new stadium for them in the Lutley Gutter area of Halesowen. Is it just me, or is anyone else amazed by the incredible coincidence that Lutley Gutter is also green belt?

The whining going on about Cricket versus Blue Tits in this list totally misses the point that St Modwen's proposals are just not cricket. Property developers are interested long term in building residential properties in green belt land because they command higher prices than urban properties. The problem for such developers is how to get around regulations preventing them building on protected green belt land. The answer is to offer socially acceptable sweeteners such as sports clubs and school facilities. These are sprats to catch a mackerel - once they have been built the principle of not building in green belt land has been lost forever. The bulldozers can then move in to concrete over what is left before the "Luxury Apartment" kits are unpacked and assembled over what used to be a precious natural environment. The consequent loss of educational and recreational opportunities, destruction of natural habitat for rare wildlife such as Great Crested Newts and Nightjars and the decline in local air quality is something that our children and grandchildren will quite rightly not thank us for.

What is really galling is that less than 500 yards from the edge of the green belt area set to be destroyed there is a perfectly good site for the new cricket club that is actually a far more suitable choice than the proposed development - the old site of Greenhill school. Since the school was demolished in an act of political spite by a Tory dominated council over 20 years ago it has been woefully underused and subject to periodic vandalism. Surely now is the time for someone in the council to pull their fingers out and make a real difference by looking at the potential of this site. If St Modwen are really so interested in providing sports facilities then let them build them here instead of in green belt land - and don't give us that guff about rules and regulations. If council rules can be bent to allow companies to build on green belt land, then they can also be bent to allow St Modwen to build on council-owned land.

Alarm bells ring when a company such as St Modwen propose a "conservation area" to be built in green belt land as it has at Coombes Wood. For what possible reason could a "conservation area" be necessary within the natural landscape of a section of green belt land..? Perhaps the answer is that such a company has good reason to expect the natural habitat of Coombes Wood to be under threat in the foreseeable future. If so the nature of this threat should be made public rather than hidden behind seemingly public-spirited gestures.

The real issue is just not cricket - it's how can we act now to prevent the entire Coombes Wood green wedge from being put under concrete within the 15 year target that St Modwen sets for the development of its current property holdings. And Ol - should your pipe dream of a new cricket club come to pass, then make the most of your 15 year lease of the site. I have the strangest feeling that the lease will not be renewed...

Im not a big one for campaigning but I find I cannot sit back on the issue about which I write, it means far too much to me and countless others in the area.

I am a regular daily user of the area known as Coombeswood wedge. In all honestly I love the place and have undertaken something of a wardens role at times, even putting out fires in the summer months ! I often spend time chatting to people young and old about the wildlife it contains and at times have also successfully challenged some of those that have abused it though thankfully this is a rare occurrance.

Im devastated by the plans from St Modwen to rehome the cricket club / sports venue there.

St Modwens record for the destruction of green belt in the area is well known.

They were the group behind the destruction of the Quinton meadows site some years ago. Now clearly they want to destroy yet another haven, one of the few remaining places left to go to escape the daily grind of life in this horrible modern world, where profit always runs rough shod over nature and those that care about it.

For all the corporate blurb about caring for the environment they have already shown how they operate.

St Modwen quote

quote 'We are closely aligned with the communities in which we operate, continually mindful of the impact of our developments on the local area . We contribute to local communities by creating new workplaces and homes, supporting local enterprise, building new community facilities, and improving infrastructure. And in all this, we seek to enhance the environment , repairing the damage done by previous occupiers and by developing to the highest possible standards'.

The local community DO NOT want this.

The existing area of Coombswood development is already spreading.

I have watched and taken pictures daily as more trees have been felled, how another unit has been constructed, this time on the other side of the canal which they originally said would not be encroached upon.

Once they start on the lower field, the whole lot will disappear.The site is already protected as a SINC so are they to just be allowed to ignore that too ?

There are a couple of barn owl pairs that were frequently seen on the site but are becoming much less frequent and I fear they may now be nesting elsewhere, since the new unit was constructed right on their old feeding site.

The buzzards, Kestrels bats and Herons are also frequently seen right in the area of the proposed development. I regularly stand in awe as I watch the aerial displays they give. No man made entertainment comes anywhere near it !

The field in question provides one of the few areas from which the herons can take off safely and they can often be seen in the lower field as they rest between feeding.

I have personally carried out nightime nature vigils on the site, filmed and experienced the magic of badgers, foxes, bats and even fallow deer over on the wedge. Please don't let St modwen take this away !

Its a bit of land that means so much to so many and to allow the profiteers to win really will signify the end of any pride I could ever again have in this country. It would be so so wrong.

I have always said that if I won the lottery, (I wish) Id buy the wedge, protect it and build it into a celebration of nature in the area because thats what it is, and as that, it is worth far more than any sports centre or development that St Modwen or the likes could give us. We dont want or need more houses.

Leave us and mother nature, room to breathe - please !