Nearly 20,000 sign petition against plans for industrial units in Oldbury
Nearly 20,000 people have backed an online petition calling on Sandwell Council to throw out plans for a "football pitch-sized" industrial unit on vital green space.
The petition was launched just two weeks ago but has since amassed thousands of signatures and is currently standing at around 18,990.
Campaigners are protesting against plans to flatten the Oldbury wildlife corridor – which developers want to build new warehouses on.
The plans have been lodged with Sandwell Council to built the units, which would be used for storage and distribution, on the privately-owned land next to the Asda supermarket.
The woodland is located off Wolverhampton Road between the Asda superstore and Langley Primary School and is near to the M5, which runs on a bridge close by.
Phil Shakespeare, who launched the petition, said: "We are really pleased with the response to the petition – we had been hoping for 1,000 to 2,000 signatures tops, but it seems to have gone viral.
"The petition is a little focus in a little area on a much wider issue. One day we will wake up and our children will have no green spaces left.
"It is protecting the green spaces we have left. It is heartbreaking to think it could be turned into concrete.
"We have got until the end of this week to hand the petition into the council. Then the proposals should be up at planning committee in October.
"We need to keep up the pressure. We will continue to fight this."
A design and access statement, submitted with the application, states: "The proposal is for two industrial units with the associated revised access, parking and landscaping.
"The service yards are located to the north west of the units and include three loading docks and two level access doors adjacent to sides of the loading docks respectively. The service areas includes the HGV parking spaces and allows enough space for vehicle manoeuvring.
"The car parking, including the accessible parking bays and the cycle and motorcycle parking is provided near the office components. There are 63 parking spaces provided in total for the development."
Sandwell Council's planning committee is expected to make a decision on the plans in the coming months.
To view the petition, search for 'Oldbury Wildlife Corridor' on www.change.org.
