Outline plans approved for Whitchurch nature reserve project
A wildlife charity has won permission to create new £150,000 visitor facilities in a bid to increase tourists to a nature area.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust is bidding to transform the site in the Meres and Mosses wildlife area that was formerly the Furber’s car breaker’s yard in Whixall, near Whitchurch.
In outline plans approved by Shropshire Council, the trust hopes to create an enclosed space for 30 people with cafe facilities, toilets, a viewing tower and a retail area.
It also wants to create board walk access, a play area, a bird hide and a 40-space car park.
The trust hopes to open the new visitor facilities in an existing open shed by 2020, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other funding.
Officials hope the new centre will help make the site more attractive to visitors and provide a visual draw from the canal, which runs close to the site.
Recently closed after 50 years, the former scrapyard was covered in 100,000 tyres, thousands of litres of disused oil and tonnes of wing mirrors and bumpers.
To return it to a condition where wildlife can thrive, Shropshire Wildlife Trust has been raising £500,000 to clean decades of waste, and clear out several oil sump pits, before covering the site with peat.
This will allow the bog habitat to regenerate and plant species to return.
The charity then hopes to create new £150,000 visitor facilities.
Whixall Parish Council supported the outline application but has some concerns over traffic to the site and the tower/ periscope.
A report submitted by Shropshire Council case officer Sue Collins said: "It is the opinion of officers that the proposal is acceptable.
"Through the clearance of the existing development it will enhance and protect the internationally important ecology sites and the rural landscape. The development will also provide much needed facilities for visitors to the mosses and canal.
"Issues relating to contaminated land, drainage and appearance will be dealt with as part of a reserved matters application or discharge of conditions."
A statement on behalf of the trust said: "Development will be phased to reduce the risk of creating a ‘white elephant building’ for the area.
"The site itself has potential to make a wild place accessible to a whole range of people."
