A senior councillor has said he has made a decision "of national significance" to turn three picturesque Solihull villages into a single town in an attempt to protect the borough's green belt.

Knowle, Dorridge and Bentley Heath (KDBH) are to be defined as a single settlement known as a town.

And Balsall Common has also had its status changed to a town after the move was rubber stamped at the cabinet portfolio holder's climate change and planning decision session on Thursday, (October 23). 

The reclassification plan was proposed by Solihull Council officers earlier this year with councillors deciding to explore it further.

Results from a six-week consultation held in the summer showed 55 per cent of the 165 residents who took part supported the change for KDBH.

And 40 per cent said they thought Balsall Common should also become a single settlement.

The change is key because of how green belt and grey belt (lower-quality green belt areas suitable for housing) planning policies are implemented.

The green belt will now have a purpose of stopping the three villages from merging as they will be treated as a town in planning terms – with no such protection for villages. 

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Introducing the item at the latest meeting the portfolio holder, Cllr Andy Mackiewicz, said it had become "a decision of national significance".

"A driver for this, we had planning applications around Knowle and Dorridge saying this is grey belt," Cllr Mackiewicz added.

Cllr Oliver Farr said: "To a lot of people a village is a nice high street and a town is a bit more industrial. 

"But for the purposes of this, to protect the green belt, it almost needs to be a town.

"I think the whole grey belt stuff is a worrying first step towards undermining the green belt – all we can do is try to protect what we can."

As the Local Democracy Reporting Service has been reporting councillors and planning officers have stressed the move is purely for "planning purposes" and residents would still live in and call their areas villages.

Meanwhile it was decided not to progress on the option of Dickens Heath being reclassified as a town due to its 4,900 population size being considered too low and a lack of services and facilities generally.

But if the village does grow in the future there is the possibility this option can be revisited and another consultation launched, councillors heard.

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The government introduced the grey belt concept as it has a commitment to build 1.5 million homes nationally during this parliament with Solihull given a target of 8,500.

And a number of applications to build new housing estates on Solihull's green belt have been lodged with the authority in the past year.