Telford business park poised to get go-ahead

The plans for the giant business park were put forward by Telford & Wrekin Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to build on more than 50 acres of green land in Hortonwood.

The site is near Queensway Hadley Learning Community, a school for children with special needs. The plans, split into parts A and B, are due to go before the borough council's planning committee on Wednesday at The Whitehouse Hotel in Wellington at 6pm Planning officer Daniel Owen has recommended they are approved.

The applicants are asking that outline planning permission is given for Part A, which would see 585,599sqft turned into industrial land, including warehouses, offices and food and retail outlets.

For Part B the applicants are looking to get full planning permission, which would see two warehouses built on the site. In the report Mr Owen said: "The proposal would be delivered through the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership as part of their vision to create 70,000 new homes and 40,000 new jobs across Telford, Shrewsbury and Hereford over 20 years.

"The proposed development would benefit from funding from the Telford Growth Package, which is funded through the central Government Marches growth deal.

"The package will involve improvements to a series of junctions located along the strategic highway network in Telford. The applicant has stated that the proposal could generate up to 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs across the while site and this is a significant material planning consideration that weighs in favour of the application. The development would contribute to the minimum of 76 hectares of employment land required within the borough to 2031."

The plans have met with objection from the Horton Action Group, which says the business park would increase traffic, causing accidents.