Homes planned for former Shrewsbury charity site
Developers have launched plans to transform a former children's home and training centre for the British Red Cross in Shrewsbury into a housing development.
Shropshire Restorations Ltd has applied for permission to build seven homes at a site at Sutton Lodge Mews, in Betton Street, Belle Vue.
The historic building has been used as offices and training centre for the British Red Cross since the 1940s. Before that it was a children's home.
The charity has moved to another site, paving the way for the building to be transformed into housing.
Those behind the scheme originally wanted nine houses to be built, but have since scaled down the proposal to include seven properties, featuring a mixture of two and three-bed homes.
They say it will provide a number of "low cost starter homes" designed to help meet the current housing shortfall. And they said the "overbearing nature" of the existing training centre would be eased by its demolition.
A design and access statement by agents 2Scale Architects and Designers Ltd, in support of the plans, says: "The overall site layout has been set out so that each residential unit has a back garden amenity space, some are smaller than others but each has sufficient space for clothes drying, recycling bins, a shed, a hardstanding for cycle storage and a full width patio.
"There are a number of examples in the Belle Vue area of small backyards, this scheme provides larger amenity areas than other schemes."
It adds: "The scale of the development is of an appropriate size relative to the site and the surrounding Belle Vue district of Shrewsbury.
"The development is providing seven new dwellings which are of an affordable size."
Shropshire Council officers expect to decide on the plans by the end of October.
