Plans to send hundreds of lorries through Balsall Common every day have left some residents "distraught" according to a local councillor.

The high speed rail developer resubmitted plans last week to send up to 400 lorries through the village centre on a daily basis to the Waste Lane worksites.

But Berkswell Parish Council member Cllr Andrew Burrow has started a petition as he hopes to persuade the borough council not to approve the application second time around.

"It is the harm that is likely to be caused to residents by using that route," he said.

"The road is too narrow and the pavements are too narrow to allow for safe passing of vehicles that are that wide."

He added: "Some people are distraught; some people are resigned to it.

"When a lady tells you that she has to keep her children on the hedge side of the road because she is so scared, and now she thinks she is going to have to drive to school - which is just a third of a mile away – it really gets you."

Alternatives

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council rejected a similar application in 2021 due to the safety concerns around lorries passing each other on Kelsey Lane and Waste Lane.

The council also said that HS2 had not given enough consideration to alternatives, including an off-road route that would see lorries cross the current main line.

Cllr Burrow said this still hadn't been addressed.

"HS2 has not worked hard enough to find an alternative route, including a jump over the West Coast Mainline – which they have to build anyway.

"They are prioritising other work rather than building that jump over.

"Once that is built, they will have a continuous hall route from Bradnock's Marsh to effectively Kenilworth.

"All the way through they can go off-road.

"If they built that bridge it would be a lot easier for residents, and if they had to run trucks to build that bridge, my view is that residents would accept it."

Safety Mitigation

Whilst the new plans include 'safety mitigation' including a roundabout on Kelsey Lane and 20mph speed restrictions, Cllr Burrow said these wouldn't make the route any safer.

"The [proposed] roundabout is painted on the road, and we know that motorists will just drive straight across it.

"That is certainly what the HS2 trucks will do because they wont get around it otherwise.

"They're not proposing proper speed limits, just one of those signs that flashes up."

He also said there had been no impact assessment for the proposals, especially the roundabout.

"You might have a roundabout that will do something, but what else is it going to do?

"Where is the impact assessment? Where are the precautionary measures? None of it has been done."

Working with residents

With the petition hitting nearly 800 signatures in the space of a week, Cllr Burrow said residents were tired of HS2 not taking their views into account.

"These are real people with real problems, and they don't want to be fighting HS2 over things like this," he said.

"Most residents want this thing built and gone. They want HS2 to do their upmost to minimise the impact on the local community.

"They don't believe that is what they do."

Parish councils were consulted before the latest application was submitted, but Cllr Burrow said this felt more like a "tick box exercise".

"On this issue they consulted the parish council on 3 February," he said.

"They talked to us about their plans and their thoughts, we gave them alternate suggestions and then they submitted their planning application on 8 February – that is not consultation."

Adding: "I think HS2 are arrogant full stop."

A link to the petition can be found here.

(Lead image by Bill Nicholls via geograph.org.uk)