Mind The Gap
No, not the Underground but an emerging campaign group set up to protect an important
green lung between Birmingham and Coventry. The notional centre of England is
called Meriden, a village equidistant from the two conurbations. It has lent
its name to this green lung known as the Meriden Gap , designated in the Solihull
Unitary Development Plan as green belt. As such it is an extremely attractive
area of land for development. Over the years the green belt of Solihull has been
nibbled away so much that its present boundary is the M42 running North-South
through the Gap and stopping developments such as the NEC and Birmingham Airport
from spilling ever closer to Coventry.
There is a growing exasperation with local decision makers and resulting campaigns
against the following inappropriate developments in the Gap:
* the interim approval for a 65 acre motorway service station just one field
away from Catherine de Barnes
* 250 acres of the Meriden Gap being gobbled up if Birmingham wins the bid for
the national stadium
* uncontrolled housing development in Balsall Common
* the threat of the M42 becoming a 10-lane super-highway eating into the Gap
to accommodate extra lanes
* talk of a technology triangle affecting not only Solihull and its villages,
but also Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington.
It was decided to arrange a meeting under the title Mind The Gap to highlight
all of these dangers and the benefits of working together. The prospect of the
National Stadium has rightly led to fears that if such a development can take
place in the Green Belt then developers will declare open season on the Meriden
Gap and we will see the coalesence of the Birmingham/ Solihull conurbation with
the City of Coventry. The meeting was successful not only in terms of numbers
attending but also the range of organisations represented and interest from politicians
of all parties.
The first action of Mind The Gap was a football match for local children during
the recent half term. This resulted in a 3-3 draw between Mind The Gap and their
local rivals Kick Out The Bid. As I type the match is going into extra time and
the crowd awaits penalties.
Mind The Gap will continue to add value to campaigns to save the Meriden Gap
for today's and future generations. It is essential that we deliver urban regeneration
in the West Midlands and the best way of ensuring that happens is by defending
not only our countryside but also our urban green areas and recognising the importance
open space plays in our collective quality of life. This will in turn focus our
planners and developers on delivering human scale projects which accommodate
people's needs and not shareholders' dividends nor space for the car at the expense
of nature.
Chris Crean