650 new homes planned for two Telford sites

Two sites, in Donnington and Muxton, were today identified for major developments that would bring an extra 650 houses to the town.

The first site is north east of Wyevale Garden Centre off New Trench Road, where 430 homes could be built.

A site south east of the garden centre, near retirement complex Breton Park, has been earmarked for a further 220 homes. It would also include a new 420-pupil primary school and playing fields.

The outline plans have been submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council by global development company Mott MacDonald.

The homes will be a mixture of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes, and will be both two and three-storey.

If the plans are given the green light it is expected building work on the first phase of the development will start in 2018 and be finished by 2022.

The developer is aiming to start building the primary school in 2019, with a completion date set for the following year.

"There is an identified need for housing," a spokesman for Mott MacDonald said.

"The development will assist in meeting housing need and is sustainably located."

But some residents have hit back at the plans, saying they do not fall in line with the borough council's Local Plan.

In the Local Plan, the council said it will protect the rural landscape of Lilleshall, along with green spaces that form part of the 'Lilleshall Gap' between Telford and Newport.

Residents say Mott MacDonald has submitted the plans on part of this land which would close the gap.

Keith Mallard, who lives on Breton Park in Muxton, said: "The proposed housing site would infringe on our privacy and the green open spaces would be gone.

"We also have to take into consideration the environmental impact on the area on many species of plants and animals that would be destroyed.

"We have been negotiating over the last two years with councillors and it was agreed that a heavy buffer zone, not landscaping would be put between Breton Park and any building.

"It appears now this is not the case with the latest plans and we feel very let down after all the assurances we were given."