Bishop's Castle homes get go-ahead as ruling reversed

Residents, town councillors and members of Shropshire Council's south planning committee say they are bitterly disappointed that the plans in Bishop's Castle will now go ahead despite fears about dangers on the road.

But Stuart Taylor, planning consultant behind one of the developments, said the road safety fears were "completely false". He said the inspector's ruling showed Shropshire's planning committees should think twice before turning down applications their own officers had recommended to go ahead.

Plans to build homes on Woodbatch Road and Lavender Bank were both turned down by Shropshire Council in October last year.

But developers behind both schemes immediately launched appeals to the Planning Inspectorate. Now Mr Taylor, of Les Stephan Planning, which drew up the proposal for 10 houses on Woodbatch Road, said the developers had been vindicated – and Shropshire Council would have to foot the bill.

He said: "Shropshire Council's own planning officers realised that these were sustainable schemes. It was the members of the committee that made these unsubstantiated claims about the roads that were completely false.

Councillor Heather Kidd said: "I don't think he should be proud of putting houses on a dangerous road that is going to cause local people a lot of problems.

"My view on the road hasn't changed. You can't make it safer, you can't widen it and you can't put in passing places. It is incredibly busy and it's going to get worse."

She said the appeal only won because the planning inspector wasn't given evidence that Shropshire Council now already has a five-year plan for housing in the county.

The committee's decision to refuse other applications, such as 25 houses in Worthen – again against the advice of council officers – had been upheld by the planning inspector, she said, so developers did not always win in such cases.

Bishop's Castle councillor Charlotte Barnes said: "The community and the councillors put a strong case why it wasn't an appropriate development in that area. It's doesn't seem that our arguments have been listened to in a careful way by the planning inspector."

In his report on the Woodbatch Road site, planning inspector Ian Radcliffe said: "I recognise that this decision will be disappointing for local residents."