Ellesmere beauty spot housing plan to be decided on by inspector after delay

Rosemary and Chris Horton will now hear directly from a planning inspector whether their plans to build 10 homes on land off Church Street in Ellesmere, close to the town's Mere, will be approved.

Shropshire Council has admitted it failed to determine the application within the prescribed eight-week time frame.

But it has blamed the delay on staff shortage and more information being required before it could make a final ruling on the application.

In a bid to speed up the process the applicants, Greenspace Architects, have lodged an appeal with the government planning inspector on the grounds of non-determination by the council.

Plans to build the homes next to the beauty spot, which attracts thousands of visitors each year, have come under fire from residents and town councillors who want the area left alone

Ellesmere Town Council also objected to the application.

Greenspace Architects, which is the agent for the scheme, claims the plan has argued the proposal could have a positive impact on the town and promote stronger links between the town and the Mere by opening up a connection and improving the existing footpath.

A statement on behalf of the applicants says: "All issues of scheme design and planning policy have been addressed and agreed, with the exception of the request from the Shropshire Council archaeology department to carry out extensive archaeological digging, at great expense to the applicant, with no clear prospect of achieving a positive planning outcome.

"We are of the opinion the council are using delaying tactics, allowing the council to give increasing weight to the SAMDev proposal to move the settlement boundary to exclude the main part of the site."

A statement on behalf of Shropshire Council says: "The local planning authority accepts that it failed to determine the application within the prescribed eight-week time frame.

"The reasons for this are due to additional information being required in order to reach a position that the local planning authority is confident that all necessary information has been received, in order to make a robust decision prior to the determination of the application.

"The council also acknowledges that there has been a shortage of staff and high case load, and it has made it very difficult for applications to be processed and to maintain a high level of communication.

"However, the council considers in this case there was sufficient information published on the council's web pages detailing consultee comments received and there has been ample opportunity for the agent to view these and to submit this information to the local planning authority.

"The council argues that the local authority have exercised their duty to process the planning application in a reasonable manner and without the required information being submitted, the determination of the application would have been unsound."

The appeal is to be decided by written representations, rather than a full hearing, in the coming months.