SLP KDBH Extracts - Flipbook - Page 17
Challenge E - Protecting key gaps between urban
areas and settlements
Maintaining the integrity of the Green Belt and the Borough’s attractive rural setting
that helps to attract investment, in the context of the significant pressures on
agriculture and for development to meet the housing requirements for Solihull
including the local and wider Housing Market Area needs.
Objectives
Maintain the Green Belt and improve the network of green infrastructure in Solihull, to
prevent unrestricted expansion of the major urban area, to safeguard the key gaps
between settlements such as the Meriden Gap and the countryside.
Ensure that the countryside is managed so as to deliver a range of benefits including
the growing of food and energy products, create an attractive rural setting and
improved public access and recreational opportunities.
Challenge F – Reducing inequalities in the Borough
North Solihull
Significant levels of deprivation with higher levels of crime, fear of crime and
worklessness than the Borough average.
Poor public transport links with the south of the Borough, employment areas and poor
access by walking and cycling to local services and facilities and economic assets.
Inadequate supply of business premises, particularly space for small and medium
size enterprises.
Skills / qualifications gap and low educational attainment.
Poor quality urban environment (including main retail centre), green space and public
realm, lack of variety of tenures, lack of market and affordable housing.
Poor health, significantly lower life expectancy with a significant gap between the best
and the worst wards in the Borough.
Other areas of the Borough
Pockets of deprivation in the Mature Suburbs and Rural Area: low incomes,
unemployment and poor health in parts of Bickenhill, Elmdon, Lyndon, Olton and
Shirley.
Problems of access to housing and local services, particularly in some rural areas.
Increasing obesity Borough wide, of particular concern amongst children.
Pockets of anti-social behaviour crime around the Borough.
Objective
Close the gap of inequality between the most and least affluent wards in Solihull,
particularly reducing the inequalities that exist between North Solihull and the rest of
the Borough.
Challenge G - Maintaining a supply of Gypsy and
Traveller sites and pitches
17
17