10-year Shropshire masterplan for housing agreed

The authority is now one of only 40 local planning authorities nationally to have completed both a core strategy and a site allocations plan consistent with the requirements of current national policy, after councillors yesterday unanimously approved to adopt the Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) plan.

SamDev sets out how the county should develop over the next decade, from 2006 to 2016, setting out which land should be zoned for various uses.

One of the key drivers for the completion of the document is to ensure the supply of housing land to satisfy the national requirement for the availability of housing for five years worth of development.

Government inspector Claire Sherratt signed off the county-wide document, which lays out Shropshire Council's plans to build 27,500 homes by 2026.

Among the most controversial schemes on the document is for 117 houses, known as OSW004, off Whittington Road, in the shadow of Oswestry's historic hillfort.

Protesters had called for the development to be taken out of the housing blueprint saying that it would ruin the environment of the Iron Age hillfort that towers above the north of the town, and were yesterday angered that the document had been approved including the plan for the 117 homes.

The plans also include more than 3,000 homes which will need to be built in Shrewsbury.

The proposed developments in the county town include urban extensions to the south and west of the town.

The Shrewsbury south sustainable urban extension will see 900 homes created on land off Oteley Road, while the western extension will see about 750 homes built off Welshpool Road in Bicton Heath along with a multi-million pound link road and 12 hectares of land set aside for employment.

In total 3,640 homes will be needed in the county town, according to the plan.

Despite the opposition, Councillor Malcolm Price, portfolio holder for regulatory services, housing and commissioning, said it was a vital document.

Sound

He said: "The inspector has concluded that the Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan is sound and legally compliant, and provides an appropriate basis for the planning of the county, providing that a number of specific modifications are made.

"It is vitally important."

He said the inspector had endorsed the council's development strategy, concluding "individually and as a whole the resulting site allocations represent the most realistic, deliverable and appropriate options appropriate to local design aspirations and the character of each settlement, as well as supporting the delivery of additional community infrastructure".

The strength of feeling in some communities was felt outside Shirehall in Shrewsbury yesterday, with more than a dozen members of the Hands Off Our Hillfort (HOOH) group waving banners and placards calling on the plans for the Oswestry homes to be shelved.