Secret city plan for Telford, claims MP
Secret plans are being hatched to turn Telford into a city, Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard claimed today.
Mr Pritchard has called for the council to "come clean" over its plans for the town.
He has written to Leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, Councillor Kuldip Sahota, over fears about the scale and speed of housing on greenfield sites.
He said he had highlighted several development sites in the Telford area, which he claimed had been opposed by the public.
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About 80 sites in Telford have been earmarked for development as part of a blueprint to build 8,000 homes in Telford & Wrekin.
Mr Pritchard said development plans for Wellington, Lilleshall, and Muxton as well as Waters Upton, Edgmond, and Tibberton, were causing concerns.
"If the Labour leadership want to turn a semi-rural borough into an urban city, then they could come clean with people," he said.
"Most people like the mix of urban and rural places in the borough – they don't want all urban and concrete.
"The scale and speed of the housing proposed, often on greenfield sites, is completely unacceptable to the vast majority of people."
Former school sites are among potential plots being eyed for housing. Another 127 could be at the former Sutherland School, in Trench, and 221 at the former Charlton School, in Wellington.
Some of the biggest development sites are the former Sugar Beet Factory Site in Allscott and Maxell Expansion Land in Apley Castle which have a potential housing yield of 500 each.
Telford & Wrekin Council approved the next phase of the Shaping Places plan during a meeting in May, which will help shape development in the borough for the next 17 years.
