Plan for building homes in flood-prone area in Solihull withdrawn

A controversial application to build 20 homes near a flood-prone area of Solihull has been withdrawn. The scheme would have seen houses built alongside Purnell’s Brook between Knowle and Solihull town centre, a waterway that regularly floods after heavy rain.

Residents of Langfield Road, a nearby street that has seen ‘dangerous’ flooding in the past, strongly objected to the plans when they were launched in November last year. Almost 300 people signed a petition pleading with Solihull Council to look at the causes of the flooding before any further development took place.

Resident David Whiting, 65, told the LDRS in April that torrential downpours could turn roads into rivers and churned raw sewage into gardens. Flooding at a nearby roundabout on Warwick Road meets surface run-off from Copt Heath Golf Club and an overflowing Purnell’s Brook, occasionally creating a vast body of water on Langfield Road.

Many of the signatures on the petition came from the estate surrounding Langfield Road, Abbots Close and Barnbrook Road. Mr Whiting said homes on Newton Road, which runs adjacent to the site of the proposed new development, saw their back gardens regularly flooded by stagnant water coming from an overflowing Purnell’s Brook. 

The decision to withdraw the application came on Friday, June 16, with no specific reason provided by the developer Hayfield Homes. In January, the Environment Agency had objected to proposals on the grounds that they could pose a flood risk.

On June 25, 2021, very heavy rain meant large areas of Langfield Road were completely submerged, cutting hundreds of homes off.