Market Drayton 250-home plan approved

The proposal to build the homes off land off Greenfields Lane in Market Drayton was approved by Shropshire council's north planning committee.

Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, Shropshire councillor for Market Drayton Roy Aldcroft said he wanted to see the disused railway at the back of the site turned into a pedestrian access.

"The old railway would make an ideal footpath and a nature reserve. It would be perfect for people taking children to the primary schools," he said.

Councillors voted to grant outline planning permission for the scheme, asking for the railway line to be part of reserved matters at the detailed planning stage.

An outline planning application was previously considered by members of the north planning committee in November 2014, February 2015 and July 2015 to build the homes on a 11 hectare site on the northern side of the town, on the inside of the A53.

Now that the application site area has reduced, councillors were asked to re-consider the proposal.

A report by Shropshire Council case officer Karen Townend states: "The application was originally presented to committee alongside an application on adjacent land to the west by Gladman Developments. The adjacent site has since been granted reserved matters consent and the housing is under construction. The application for this site is still pending a decision.

"The July 2015 report was approved subject to the deletion of the proposed access off the A53 as the development of this site was required to be connected to the adjacent development site and served off the new roundabout provided by that development, and also from the existing estate road Hampton Drive. Members previously resolved to support the proposal.

"This report is before members as the application site area has reduced and as committee previously determined the application the changes to the proposal need to be considered by members.

"The change to the site area is the deletion of the land occupied by PD Stevens business. As such the applicant has also submitted a noise assessment to consider the potential impact on the future residents of the application site from the PD Stevens business which will remain."