Hundreds object to plans for business park in Dudley
More than 100 residents have objected to plans to build a huge business park in Dudley – who fear an increase in traffic could make roads unsafe.
Proposals have been submitted to Dudley Council for the site off Dreadnought Road, in Pensnett.
The application has been resubmitted for the land, owned by Hinton, Perry & Davenhill Ltd, after Dudley Council's planning committee threw out an earlier proposal in May.
The council’s planning committee rejected a plan for a new access road to the site after residents voiced fears over traffic safety and increase in heavy goods vehicles along Dreadnought Road and Tansey Green Road.
At that time councillors were told that had been 12 collisions in the last five years on local roads, with half being associated with speeding or alcohol and 100 per cent involving driver error. Three quarters of the incidents happened outside of peak hours.
Recommending approval in May, planning officers added: “Whilst the development will generate a small number of additional movements in the peak hours, given the low peak hour accident rate, it is not considered the development will have any material effect on the highway safety in the area.”
The committee’s decision came only a week after 17-year-old Charlie Leigh Burgoyne was killed in a fatal car crash after a vehicle overturned in Tansey Green Road.
The new application is asking permission to build a commercial unit of 3,716 square meters and associated offices.
A design and access statement submitted with the proposals, states: “Outline consent is being sought for commercial development. This will combine manufacturing/assembly with associated ancillary office based functions and the elements of storage.
“Such employment-based activity is considered wholly appropriate for this locality, with excellent transportation links."
A total of 118 residents have formally objected to the plans so far and they are being backed by Brockmoor and Pensnett ward Councillor Sue Greenaway .
She said: “They are really worried about more heavy traffic using the road and really I can’t see the need for another trading estate there, there are about four in that little area only.
“Residents will keep objecting to this because they are really incensed by it and I don’t blame them.
“The land could be turned into something much better like a health centre which Brockmoor and Pensnett needs.”
One objector, who lives near the proposed business park, said: "Only someone who does not live in this immediate area would even dream of adding an additional traffic burden upon the residents of this (already congested) junction. You have already increased the traffic flow by allowing the development of land off Cinder Road and we can expect yet more traffic as a result of the development currently taking place on the site of the former brickworks in Tansey Green Road.
"You will know that we recently had a tragic fatal accident very close to the island but this was by no means the only accident we have witnessed which shows that the road is just not suitable for the volume of traffic that we already have, let alone even more heavy lorries at all hours of the day and night."
Another added: "We oppose the application as there will be an increase in traffic levels in the area. Dreadnought Road currently suffers road congestion at peak times and is used as a race track at other times."
