Fight about development of 78 homes in Muxton has come to an end

Telford & Wrekin Council has been fighting plans for a new estate at a planning inquiry after rejecting it as not being appropriate.

Gladman Developments wants to build the homes on land off Muxton Lane, which the council said is on fields that date back to medieval times.

A petition was started and Muxton residents have argued against the development.

Telford & Wrekin Council's barrister Timothy Jones said the houses should not be built on open countryside.

He said: "The appeal site is in open countryside and so in an area where development should be strictly controlled. It would not be strict control to permit 78 houses.

"Its suitability for disabled and less able people, for pregnant women and for a parent with young children needs to be considered. The appeal proposals include walking distances that are unrealistic for the less able or encumbered.

"Development that leaves the less physically able and the more vulnerable isolated causes social exclusion and inaccessibility.

"The council considers that in reality this would be a heavily car dependent development."

Mr Jones added that the fields date back to early 1700.

He said: "The developer's desk-based assessment that accompanied the application told the appellant to 'note that most of the surviving boundary hedgerows, and the internal hedgerows within the appeal site had been in situ since at least 1717' and stated that 'these may be considered as of historical importance'.

"The loss of greenfield land is in itself harm. The harm is greater if the land has special value, including landscape value because of historic landscape.

"Their inherent value is increased by the fact that it is a group of fields that survive, not just an individual field or pair of fields.

"These fields form an attractive rural setting to Muxton.

"Local people, and people from the wider area, welcome and take advantage of the opportunity to experience and enjoy this historic landscape from footpaths.

"The appeal proposals are contrary to the development plan. They would cause necessary harm to green field land and a valued landscape.

"They are neither necessary nor sustainable."

Jonathon Easton, barrister for Gladman Developments, said at the meeting held at the Ramada Telford-Ironbridge Hotel in Forge Gate yesterday, that the development would offer up to 23 affordable homes for the community.

He said: "There are a number of benefits with the scheme.

"It will bring through up to 23 affordable homes, which is 29 per cent of the homes planned.

"The housing policies in the development plan are all out of date.

"There's no policy to refuse on the grounds that it will encroach on the countryside.

"The council's general approach was what one might feel when crossing the paths which is difficult to comprehend in an appeal process.

"The overall affect will not be harmful and certainly not significantly and demonstrably harmful.

"We would develop a housing scheme that will become an extension of Muxton and will develop real homes for real people in the short term."

The planning inspector Martin Whitehead will present his decision in the coming weeks.