PETITION TO WIRRAL COUNCIL

Preserve our greenbelt. Reject any proposal to develop land south of Saughall Massie Road, West Kirby.

A community campaign led by your West Kirby Green campaigners, Robyn Powell, Marco dos Santos and Emma Shepherd.

To be submitted to Wirral Council Planning Department.

We, the undersigned, strongly urge Wirral Council to reject any planning application for major residential development on the farmland to the south of Saughall Massie Road, West Kirby and adjoining Black Horse Hill Junior School and Hilbre High School (reference context: SCR/26/01463).  

This proposal undermines the integrity of our local plan, threatens our urban regeneration strategy, will increase flood risk and traffic congestion, destroy productive farmland and will have significant impacts on local wildlife.

WHY THIS APPLICATION MUST BE REFUSED 

1. Breach of the Local Plan and the ‘Brownfield-First’ Commitment

Wirral’s Local Plan has been carefully formulated around a strict brownfield-first policy, protecting our precious greenbelt and agricultural land. Permitting a large development on open farmland sets a dangerous precedent, fractures our local ecological networks, and tears up the spatial strategy painstakingly developed to protect our green spaces.

2. Undermining Urban Regeneration

True sustainability means breathing new life into our towns, not sprawling out onto green fields. Wirral has fantastic regeneration plans focused on urban and dockland brownfield sites. Diverting attention, capital, and resources toward greenfield suburban sprawl actively threatens these vital urban renaissance projects, starving them of the momentum they require.

3. Inflated Housing Targets Disconnected from Demographic Reality

The housing targets enabling these speculative applications trace back to top-down, one-size-fits-all formulas introduced by the previous Conservative government - targets that have been turbo-charged by the current Labour government’s housing targets and its push to override local planning discretion. Census statistics clearly show that Wirral’s population is not growing at the pace these inflated government algorithms assume. Local planning must reflect actual local demographic need, not arbitrary national quotas.

4. Failing to Utilise Existing Housing Stock

It is fiscally and environmentally irresponsible to concrete over green spaces when Wirral has over 2,000 empty houses sitting vacant. Solving the housing crisis requires policy mechanisms that bring empty and derelict properties back into productive use first, rather than handing developers easy profits on greenfield sites.

5. Severe Infrastructure Deficit

Local public services are already at a breaking point. The proposal includes no provisions for the substantial extra strain 140 new households will place on local services. There are no guarantees or funding models for building additional local schools, expanding GP surgeries, or upgrading strained local drainage and highway networks to cope with the influx. 

Miller Homes state that they anticipate no traffic issues, yet the junctions off Saughall Massie Road around Gilroy Road are often chaotic especially around school pick up and drop off times. 

The existing road network also presents significant safety concerns. Saughall Massie Road is already a particularly dangerous road, with collision rates substantially exceeding what would normally be expected for a road of this type. Any additional traffic must be considered in the context of this existing road safety problem, not simply its capacity to accommodate more vehicles.

6. Enhanced Flood Risk

Miller Homes do not anticipate any flooding problems yet there are surface water flows across the land. These fields are now sodden for most of the winter, every year. Where will the water go if these fields are covered in concrete? The runoff from these housing estates will increase flooding in the local area and downstream. There is regular flooding of the highway near the junction with Gilroy Road. There is also flooding of the nearby China Farm Lane with the highway regularly closed because of flooding. 

7. Impact on Wildlife

This application is for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Opinion Request at the moment. Miller homes are arguing that they don’t need an EIA. This land is greenbelt and is ‘Functionally Linked’ to the River Dee RAMSAR, SPA, SAC etc. It is designated as having ‘moderate potential’ as functionally linked land meaning it is ‘visited by significant numbers of birds’

Impact on Wildlife

It provides vital support for birds, many of them qualifying species (including pink-footed geese, waders, skylarks, and various wildfowl) which depend on inland agricultural fields, pastures, and open spaces for roosting, high tide refuge, foraging, sheltering, and breeding.

8. Loss of Agricultural Land

This site is productive agricultural land, with 79% classed as BMV (Best and Most Versatile) which we must preserve for food supply - even more important with climate change and international geopolitical situations.

OUR REQUEST TO WIRRAL COUNCIL 

We urge Wirral Council to recognise the importance of this land and the significant concerns raised by this proposal.

The loss of productive farmland, green belt, wildlife habitat and natural drainage cannot simply be reversed. Nor should existing communities be expected to absorb additional pressure on roads and public services without adequate evidence, planning and investment.

There are opportunities to meet housing needs through the regeneration of existing urban and brownfield sites. We must make the best use of those opportunities before sacrificing valuable greenfield land.

We therefore call on Wirral Council to reject major residential development on this site, protect our green belt and safeguard this important part of West Kirby for current and future generations.

Please sign this petition to show your support.