Detailed 'masterplan' to be created of former Ironbridge Power Station site

Representatives of the Harworth Group say they are excited by the project – despite challenges with the costs and security associated with the site.

Once complete, it will become a mixed use site and could feature hundreds of homes, leisure facilities, shops, a hotel, medical centre and school.

Business leaders from across the county were given an update on the project at a breakfast meeting in Shrewsbury yesterday.

Stuart Ashton, head of planning at the Harworth Group, said: "We have got some huge challenges to make the scheme viable, but we are excited to be a part of this.

"We have got a good track record and we know what we are doing

"We are not from around here so we have come into the county to try and get to grips with it.

"We have been welcomed in and we have had lots of meetings with Shropshire Council for them to understand what we want to do.

"We have a series of rapid meetings before Christmas. We will create a detailed masterplan of how the site can be developed.

"We will have another round of consultation events in the spring."

Two proposals for the site have already been unveiled to the public, giving an idea of where the homes, businesses and other facilities could sit on the site.

"When we acquired the site the first thing we wanted to do is invite people in," Mr Ashton said.

"On September 27 we invited key stakeholders who we thought had key information to meet us to help us with the development of the site. Out of that we got the key issues that need addressing.

"We then did the same thing with the public on October 11. It was a fantastic event.

"We used all the information we gathered from them events to create a masterplan. It is very much the first stage of the planning process.

"What we are going to end up with is a mixed use site of residential, employment, commercial, leisure, school, open space. We are talking about 1,000 homes."

Mr Ashton said one of the biggest things to come out of the public consultation is calls to re-open the railway linking Ironbridge and Birmingham.

Mr Ashton added: "We have been doing presentations around the county, including parish councils as well as other interest groups.

"I think people are generally supportive of the redevelopment of the site. One issue is the scale of the site which we are used to.

"The key thing to come out of the planning process to date has been re-opening the rail link. We have an existing rail link in there which was used to bring things like coal into the site.

"We have also been asked about a park and ride on site and can the road network cope.

"Another issue which always crops up is doctor surgeries and education. We have started those discussions already and will be working with Shropshire Council. We welcome those facilities on site."

The Harworth Group has a long history of transforming disused industrial sites.

Its previous projects include the former Orgreave Colliery in Rotherham, probably best known for the infamous pitched battles between police and pickets trying to shut down the coking works during the 1984/5 miners’ strike.

The site, which was once an industrial wasteland, now houses thousands of people, and by the time it is finished it will have a population roughly the size of Ludlow.

Associate director Iain Thomson added: "We are a first-time investor in Shropshire, we have no previous land in the county.

"People are asking what attracts inward investors into Shropshire – this site in Ironbridge is massively in our sweet spot.

"Its an expensive sweet spot – its not only the price of buying the land in the first place, but there is remediation, infrastructure and everything else that comes with it afterwards.

"We bought the land in June after a two-year process of buying the site. We have spent the last five months actively working through what we plan to do and getting them in place."