As a concerned Hillwood road resident I attended the exhibition as I have major concerns over the proposed three site development.
Area 1 Existing Cricket Club
I was informed by one of St Modwens' planning representitives having listened to concerns from the previous meeting they had amended the plans putting the entrance to the estate directly off Coombes Road (laughable they obviously haven't done a traffic survey during rush hour) he added there was support from the residents of the Lodgefield Road Estate for housing to replace the cricket club, those I spoke to from Lodgefield Road area who were for the development were actually against the Cricket Club citing loud music, taxis honking horns, car doors being slammed, loud voices late at night, lets face it yes it is a Cricket Club, but its main source of income is from its Social Club activities. To give the go ahead to St Modwens' proposals would simply be transferring the problem to another area. On to the actual development, St Modwen are proposing an 80 plus low level development, this in itself sounds quite attractive until you remember they are only putting in for outline planning permission, if granted the value of the land escalates, the obvious intention is once they have this in place the land would be sold off to a major developer who will then submit their own plans for approval, would this be for 80 plus low level houses I think not.
Area 2 Coombeswood Green wedge
A site of outstanding natural beauty the panoramic views from the middle of the proposed Cricket Pitch are the best you will find in the whole of Dudley MBC, its a site used by many individuals in the local community for bird watching, dog walking, rambling, jogging, and local children play there, I spoke at length to Green Issues ecologist John Box, I found his responses to my concerns trite, when pressed to give an answer to my concerns his stock answer was "who owns the land". As to the development itself we asked virtually every representitive there " what type of security fencing would there be around the site, no one was prepared to give an answer to this question, can we expect 20 foot high palisade fencing changing what is a site of natural beauty into something more akin to a prison camp. I asked about drainage, currently everything at the moment runs off into the canal, can you imagine the ecological damage the use of the wrong fertiliser will do to the fish stocks in the canal.
I questioned Ian Ramono on the potential nuisance from the club, his answer was that it would be up to Dudley Licensing.
Area 3 Playing fields for School
Some years ago there was a proposal to create playing fields on the former land fill site at the time I wondered why it wasn't going to be put in whats now its proposed position I was informed its a nesting ground for Sky Larks and that there were Badgers Sets. The one thing that really does perturb me over this section of the development is if there was insufficient land at Olive Hill to accomodate the merger with Holt Farm why on earth did Dudley L.E.A give the go ahead,information coming out of the school at the moment is that its a done deal, they are getting the land. Is this just rumour or a question of loose lips?, I really would like to know!!
Back to the exhibition all in all it was pointless having any St Modwen staff there because you could not get a direct answer to any question
Roy Jones

After my first attempt at posting a reasonable comment was removed, I'll try again. Many local residents, myself included, have NO objection to St. Modwen's plans, particularly in their newly-revised form. Many of the objections being raised are based purely on self-interest and can be summarised as "not in my back yard". These objections are being dressed up as a concern for ecological issues, but are poorly argued and unsubstantiated. Perhaps it is inconvenient for the Halesowen News to consider that there may be far less to report here than is currently being presented, but an agument which considers both sides would be very welcome.