Solihull Council has launched a consultation exercise on two planning documents. The first is entitled “Draft Solihull Rural Settlement Hierarchy Assessment”. The second is a “Draft Statement of Community Involvement”. The consultation runs until 25 August 2025. The Forum will be submitting its own comments in due course. Forum members and others can see the documents, and participate in the consultation, by following these links:
The main purpose of this document is to suggest which settlements in Solihull should be regarded as “towns”. This will be important in the preparation of the replacement Solihull Local Plan and the related assessment of the Green Belt. Two of the purposes of the Green Belt are to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas; and to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another – but they only apply to towns, not villages. This was a matter explored in our news item “When is a village not a village?” (15 April, 2025). Under the consultation proposals, Knowle, Dorridge and Bentley Heath will, when combined, be regarded as a town.
Forum Chair Roger Cook said, “We think this is a good idea. We first alerted the Council to a potential problem when we commented on the planning application by the Kler Group at the Arden Triangle. We are pleased that the Council has taken notice.”
Statement of Community Involvement
The Statement of Community Involvement sets out how the Council will consult on planning applications and various other planning documents such as the replacement Solihull Local Plan. There are detailed sections on:
Community and stakeholder involvement in planning document production
Neighbourhood Planning
Community Infrastructure Levy
Community and stakeholder involvement in planning applications
Again, the Forum will be reviewing the document and submitting a response to the Council before the August deadline. Contributions from Forum members are welcome. Contact us at kdbhforum@gmail.com
Chair of the Forum, Roger Cook, said, “This is a bit of a technical document – but the Forum will be taking a careful look and commenting on matters that will affect our role in the community. We have an obvious interest in neighbourhood planning as well as planning applications, the Local Plan and the Community Infrastructure Levy. We will be taking a special interest in the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy where, because of the Forum’s leading role in delivering an approved Neighbourhood Plan, 25% of the levy is specifically available for local KDBH community projects.”
You can also let the Forum know your views. We can take them into account in our official response. Contact us at kdbhforum@gmail.com
