Developers working up plan for 450 homes on green land in Shrewsbury

A planning application has yet to be lodged with Shropshire Council, but Barwood Land has already started inviting comments from residents in the Ellesmere Road area.

The land, on the opposite side of the road to the Herongate estate, has been earmarked for a place in the local plan, which itself has not yet been approved.

In a statement to the Shropshire Star, Barwood Land says it "considers that it is now timely to submit an outline planning application".

The act of submitting a plan for the land, which would include a local centre, would itself be seen as support for the new local plan as it faces an independent examination.

The site earmarked for the homes is in between Ellesmere Road and the railway line and is just down from Winney Hill and the Hencote Vineyard, where plans were lodged last year to build a £75 million elderly care village.

In a statement Barwood Land said: "Shropshire Council is committed to delivering the North West Relief Road and has secured funding from the Department for Transport to facilitate this.

"A planning application for the North West Relief Road has been submitted and is awaiting determination."

They see the site as being "intrinsically sustainable being located in proximity to Shrewsbury’s town centre and key transport routes.

"Within the Local Plan Review Shrewsbury is identified as the strategic centre of the county and the focus for growth and investment."

They insist that the development of the land will deliver tangible benefits to the town and the local community including affordable housing, a high-quality network of green infrastructure, including play spaces, which will simultaneously deliver a net biodiversity gain.

The local centre will likely include a small format convenience store amongst other retail amenities which will be easily accessible to both new and existing residents in the local area.

They add that it will offer the "opportunity to assist Shropshire Council to meet its climate change objectives through the provision of highly energy efficient homes, the use of renewable energy and provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure."

Before submitting a planning application Barwood Land is inviting local residents and stakeholders to review and comment on the proposals in order that the proposal can be ‘fine-tuned’ before an application is submitted.

Once submitted the Council will commence the statutory consultation which will provide a further opportunity for people to comment on the application on a more formal footing.

Some residents in the area are understood to be forming groups to look at the proposals.

Barwood Land has been promoting the site as a potential growth area since 2016.

They say the development site proposes direct vehicular access onto Ellesmere Road.

They add: "It is within a highly accessible location that encourages sustainable modes of transport, benefits from existing bus stops in close proximity, and will connect to good levels of surrounding pedestrian and cycling infrastructure."

An outline planning application is expected to be submitted to Shropshire Council in March 2022. The developers are working to a timetable where the planning committee could come to a decision next winter (2022-23).

They have already found an area of Iron Age activity in the south-western part of the site, along with two other areas of probable archaeology within the east and north west of the site which will need to be considered.

They say on their website that ecological surveys have been conducted in the area, which is next to Bagley Brook and the old river bed, confirming that most of the site has, they say, "low ecology value".