Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council's (SMBC) draft local plan has been approved after a lengthy debate full of clashes between councillors.

Reform UK and Green group councillors attempted to vote the plan down but in the end the 200 page draft plan outlining how the authority could develop up to 2043 passed.

The hour long debate took place at the latest full council meeting on October 6.

Councillors across the chamber described the plan as "imperfect" having been produced on a rapid timeline as the government wants it submitted before the end of the year.

Starting the debate council leader Cllr Karen Grinsell said: "Tonight we are being asked to take an important decision about the future of Solihull.

"This is about ensuring we have a plan, rather than allowing Solihull to be planned for us.

"The government's calculation for us, for the local housing needs has increased from 816 homes a year to 1,289 – an increase of around 58 per cent.

"That is a very substantial increase.

"Our responsibility is to do everything we can within the planning system we have to protect the character and identity of Solihull, protect our green belt wherever possible, and ensure development comes with infrastructure our communities need. That is what this local plan seeks to do."

Green group leader Cllr Max McLoughlin said: "You are racing to a deadline of December 31. Rushing is the worst of all worlds.

"Members have had two briefings in the best part of a year and they were very vague.

"This is not adequate scrutiny of the most important document this council will approve this term.

"How can any member say hand on heart they have read and tested what they are being asked to endorse? I will vote against."

Liberal Democrat councillor Kathyrn Thomas said: "Do I think the local plan is perfect? No.

"But we have seen what happens over the last year or two when we don't have a plan in place – the consequences of not having a plan outweigh the consequences of an imperfect plan."

Conservative councillor Paul Whitehouse said: "We face a very difficult truth – residents tell me the green belt is under siege and I agree.

"It comes from a Labour government forcing us to do these things and as far as I can see, the local plan is the best tool the council has to manage this."

Conservative councillor Sally Tomlinson said: "The real question is who gets to decide where the growth goes.

"Either this council decides through a local plan or developers and the government decide for us."

Reform UK's deputy group leader Cllr Alan Feeney said the local plan's creation had been a "long saga for this council".

"The proposed plan satisfies the bureaucratic exercise the government is press-ganging us into but that's all it does," he said.

"The Reform UK group asked itself would we just roll over in the face of government pressure? The unanimous answer was no.

"We need a plan – sorry it is not this one."

The council's deputy leader Cllr Heather Delaney said: "We would all have liked more time, to have gone out to more consultation.

"But what we like and the reality of the world are two very different things.

"We are not rolling over (to the government) – we are being reasonable, responsible people working in the reality of the system we have."

And Cllr Andy Mackiewicz, the portfolio holder for climate change and planning, added: "If you vote for the plan, you get some protection in.

"You vote against the plan, it is a free-for-all in the whole borough and all the concerns you have gone because the government won't end."

When the vote was held it passed on a majority through the votes of the Conservative group.

The local plan, which is set to deliver 13,000 homes, now goes out to public consultation.

The council wants a public examination in late spring with the aim for it to be adopted in early 2028.