Protest held against planned battery storage facility on green belt land in Great Barr

Many of the members at the protest were part of the Beacon Action Group, the leading residents’ group campaigning against the 3.2-hectare facility.

Jenny Hulme, a member of the Beacon Action Group, was at the protest. She said: “This has been rumbling on since 2021.

“Everyone is angry; they don’t want it and don’t understand how it could even happen. We were there standing at the site, thinking, how on earth can you put that monstrosity here?

“The lie of the land, the topography. It’s at the bottom of the valley, there’s a housing estate, a school, historic parkland, they’re sitting a potential bomb in the valley.

“If it ever went up, they’d have to evacuate a whole area. These are highly dangerous, we don’t know enough about them. It’s utter madness.”

The planning application will now be heard at a public enquiry on November 5 after the applicant, Anesco Ltd, lodged a non-determination appeal to the planning inspectorate.

Planning officers at Walsall Council have submitted a ‘comprehensive and robust’ 70-page report against the development on the grounds of fire safety risks, noise, loss of green belt, and the industrial appearance of the development.

Councillor Mike Bird said the application was ‘one of the worst’ ever put forward for the area and described it as ‘no more than a contained bomb’.

The application is the second submitted by Anesco for a battery storage facility at the site. The first, smaller proposal was refused by Walsall Council last summer.