MP Mark Pritchard attacks Telford & Wrekin Council's housing policies
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard today accused Telford & Wrekin Council of "deliberately" trying to change the character and charm of the borough's market towns.
The Tory MP's comments come as the Labour-run council considers hundreds of new homes for both Wellington and Newport.
Mr Pritchard has written to Telford & Wrekin Council expressing his concerns about plans to build 360 houses on farmland off Haygate Road in Wellington.
There are also plans for more than 400 homes to be built in Newport, along with a controversial supermarket on the edge of the town.
He said: "This is a council which has little regard for how the scale and speed of housing developments impact on communities.
"They are also destroying greenfield sites and farmland rather than developing on brownfield sites. They cynically view more housing as a revenue stream rather than dwelling that can either help or harm communities.
"Some housing development is needed – but it should only be located on suitable sites."
Mr Pritchard also hit out at the council for granting planning permission for hundreds of more homes, when work on sites that already have planning permission granted "had yet to lay a single brick."
His comments come just weeks after David Parker, of the Save Newport Campaign, said the council's plans for homes was putting Newport's identity as a market town at risk.
Plans to build 51 houses on land at the back of Willow Tree Cottage off Station Road were unveiled by Shropshire Homes earlier this year.
The site is just yards away from Telford & Wrekin Council-owned land, where Sainsbury's wants to build a large supermarket and where there are also plans for 350 more houses.
A new campaign group has been set up to block the latest development, and the Save Newport group has also objected.
Mr Parker said: "This application is yet another to add to the plethora of new-build on greenfield land, with the likely outcome of Newport completely losing its historic market town persona amidst a sprawl of characterless new housing.
"The sad thing about this frenzy of applications is that, if they go ahead, they will in fact kill the town's character."
Telford & Wrekin Council was unavailable for comment.
