A PUBLIC meeting is being held to discuss how to protect Halesowen's greenbelt against the threat of thousands of new homes.

Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris and Save Halesowen's Countryside group have teamed together to organise the meeting at Earls High on Friday September 20.

Hundreds of concerned residents are expected to turn out to the school in Furnace Lane after St Modwen submitted its vision for up to 1,130 homes on Tack Farm off Manor Way to Dudley Council.

The proposal is one of more than 150 schemes submitted to the council as part of The Black Country Plan's call for sites for potential development.

Other proposals include 1,500 houses on Foxcote Farm on Oldnall Road in Wollescote, 400 homes at Lapal Farm and 60 homes at Grange Hill and 400 houses on agricultural land on Clent View Road, Norton.

Mick Freer of Save Halesowen's Countryside said the group, which has a Facebook page, is staging the meeting to raise awareness and is also about to deliver 4,000 leaflets and plans to stage a protest walk at the end of September to Tat Farm.

He said: "The meeting will be introduced by James Morris who has supported us for the last two years.

"We will explain where the threat is coming from and the severity of the threat and and people will have the chance to express their views and ask any questions they have.

"It's a very severe threat with St. Modwen involved.

"Politicians say we should develop on brownfield sites first, but developers prefer greenbelt - it's more profitable because the homes are worth twice as much in the countryside and they don't have to clear sites first or do any clean-ups, so for the amount of effort it is much more profitable to develop greenbelt.

"Also landowners may have a parcel of land that is worth £3k as farmland, but £3million to a developer."

The meeting starts at 6.30pm.