Public meeting over green belt housing will now be held at rugby club

Dudley South MP Mike Wood was to have held a public meeting on Thursday evening at Summerhill School, but it has been cancelled due to a double booking.

Instead Wall Heath as One and another group, Friends of Ridgehill Woods, have decided to hold their own meeting on that evening at Dudley Kingswinfird Rugby Club, Swindon Road, at 7.30pm.

Wall Heath as One member Steve Cutler said it was to discuss the idea of building 863 houses on the sites known as Holbeache and The Triangle.

"These developments will alter the communities forever. They will have a massive impact on the levels of traffic, congestion, air pollution, noise and road safety for pedestrians. In a recent traffic survey on the A449 adjacent to the Holbeache site there were more than 2,500 an hour at evening peak traffic. There will also be further consequences from the loss of green space in the area, huge pressure on school places, doctors, dentists and more pressure on the hospital," he explained.

The group is concerned that with poor public transport in the area, the new developments would add to traffic congestion.

Mr Cutler said that within two miles of Wall Heath the total number of sites selected for possible housing development was eight, which could mean 1,750 new houses.

"If this is not bad enough, we are due the South Staffordshire Plan in the next few weeks. This has the potential to select a huge industrial site to the rear of the Beachcroft estate and lots more houses at various local sites. If the industrial site is not selected then it may be houses.

"Worst case scenario is 3,500 houses. The current population estimate for Kingswinford North and Wall Heath is just over 12,000. This would be doubled under this scenario – armageddon."